


Break the Limit!

by thunderthunder



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Background Relationships, Established Relationship, Gen, OT21 (NCT), trope typical violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2020-05-19 15:38:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 50,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19359862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thunderthunder/pseuds/thunderthunder
Summary: If Lee Donghyuck didn't know better, he would say his superpower is being able to roll with the punches.Because being pulled from the superhuman training program at the beginning of his third year to fill a hole in the up and coming superhero team that watches over Neo City certainly wasn't a part of his plans, but hey, he’s been in worse places. He'll be able to figure this one out too.(Right?)





	1. Pilot

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Thank you for giving this a shot!
> 
> Some info before we jump in: 
> 
> *this was some bs about me updating weekly, it didn't even happen once. i was young.*
> 
> This work is unbetaed so yell at me in the comments if somethings awry, I swear I'll fix it. I tried to catch them but,, things do happen.
> 
> And a last disclaimer, this is all a work of fiction! I don't see any of this as real and don't intend it to be a reflection of reality. Also, please don't repost! Please, please, please! 
> 
> Without further ado, please enjoy!

Lee Donghyuck has five things that he considers himself notably good at.

**1) Throwing Huang Renjun incredible distances.**

If he were being honest with himself, he’d admit that the format of monthly evaluations is a little bit tacky. The trap door opens above his team, and he goes first, pulling up his friends afterwards. As soon as Jeno files out, the door seals behind them, fitting seamlessly into the floor beneath the secluded alcove of the ring they find themselves in. He looks up to the North wall of the training arena and finds a clock counting down from sixty. On the plus side of this tacky endeavor, at least something as stressful as monthly testing becomes much more fun than something more standardized than this.

Capture the flag.

Donghyuck looks around at his team, nodding to everyone as the clock runs down. He meets Renjun’s eyes and elated grin last.

“I’m going to head over to the right side today, Hyuck.”

Donghyuck nods, “Any particular reason?”

He shrugs, “Have a good feeling about it.”

Jeno lays a hand on Renjun’s shoulder, “I’m going across, find me after?”

Renjun nods, and Donghyuck turns to where Chenle and Jisung are conversing, “Got it figured out, dumb and dumber?”

“Who’s dumber?” Chenle asks at the same time Jisung nods.

Donghyuck looks to Jaemin and his wide stance in front of the horizontal pole that holds their flag, “Guard?”

He inclines his head, smug, “Always.”

Donghyuck rolls his eyes, looks back at the clock. Ten seconds left.

The bell tolls to announce the beginning, and Donghyuck braces his legs, cups his hands low. Renjun jumps up in one smooth bound, places his right foot on Donghyuck’s hand, and their joint propulsion shoots him over the wall as the rest of his team sprint for it’s end far to the left of them. Donghyuck follows.

This year there’s enough trainees for ten teams, first to five flags wins. As a group, that is something that they have gotten close to perfecting over the years: winning.

Donghyuck looses his team fast, but it’s not a bad thing. He pushes forward, ducking under one of the structures erected in the ring for this year’s first round of evaluations. Once he’s certain of the silence, he ducks forward and towards the right side of the ring. Ever since the first time Donghyuck and Renjun mastered the throwing maneuver, it’s become an integral part of their early lead. The problem is that Renjun is fast and he already has a head start, while Donghyuck started a step behind.

He begins to hear the tell tale sounds of stomping before he’s remotely close to East side of the ring.

Donghyuck ducks behind the wall of a long corridor, waiting to see if it really is his teammate coming around. Renjun rounds the corner, sprinting with determination and two people on his ass. Donghyuck ducks around and braces himself against the wall. He focuses all his strength and stability to his feet and forearms, meets eyes with Renjun. Without a word, Renjun jumps onto his ready hands and vaults the wall with the extra lift, a flag gripped tightly in his hands.

“Thanks, Hyuck!” he calls as he disappears.

Donghyuck watches as two kids approach with vengeance, “You’d best be sprinting, Huang!”

He can hear his teammate’s elated laugh get further away.

The first girl darts at him without pause, and he jumps up to dodge her. She collides with the wall behind him, and before she turns around Donghyuck dives forward and snatches the lightstick that designates him as in the game from her partner. Then, he turns around.

She’s fast, and belatedly he realizes that he’s going to head with Soyeon and whoever she’s roped into being on her team this year. Great. Renjun really knows how to pick them. The dodge is more half hazard this time, and he rolls to break his stumble. He registers the weight on top of him before he registers her, and he’s kicking up before thinking about either. It knocks the wind out of her, and he’s quick to grab her light as well.

He breathes a sigh of relief as she pounds the ground in anger.

“Oh fuck you, Donghyuck, can’t you ever give anyone a break,” but she’s smiling, kind of.

Donghyuck lets out a tired and mildly terrified laugh, “Not this year, my apologies.”

She rolls her eyes and down the corridor, a trap door opens. Donghyuck quickly walks over, drops the lights in, taking a moment to investigate the underside of the ring, hopefully he won’t be seeing it until the end today.

Quickly he turns around, salutes them, and runs away before he can see them disappear out of the game.

**2) Saving Lee Jeno**

His game plan is moving across the ring right now. Jeno is already over there and, knowing his luck, so are Jisung and Chenle. Renjun would either be coming soon or staying behind to guard. Regardless, he likes the odds of placing his eggs in the ‘across the ring’ basket. So, he runs mindlessly towards the clock that is now clocking in close to seven minutes.

All of a sudden the walls end, and he stumbles to a stop. For whatever reason, whoever designed the ring this year has stricken a moat of water through the middle of the arena. He stops for a moment to asses. There’s no visible bridges or crossings, nothing that makes this easy. The jump may be feasible if he gets a good start due to his innate strength that comes from being super. However, getting wet means leaving tracks, and that’s the last thing he wants to do right now.

From his left, a splash sounds.

Reflexes force him to stay back, but he peers out with curiosity.

 _Fuck,_ he thinks, _it’s Jeno._

Then he’s running, because he’s got to.

Jeno’s swimming to the other side of the moat and pulling himself up as another girl sprints out from the area Jeno got his ass kicked from. With practiced elegance, she dives into the water, and _fuck_ , of course it’s Jinsol.

Her teammate, Yerim, walks out with a grin of victory adorning her face. Donghyuck debates taking her out, but sees Jinsol half way across the water and just, jumps.

It’s a rough landing, and he almost falls back into the water. Jeno looks at him, and Donghyuck is pulling him out of the water before he has time to think. They sprint. He hears the tell tale splash of water on concrete that signifies Jinsoul leaving the moat, and he tugs Jeno harder as they disappear into the maze on the other side.

Jinsol is one of the few in their year who has developed a specialty. It’s relatively new, as in the beginning of this training year new, but it matured with a vengeance. She has the ability to hold her breathe for nearly ten minutes now, she can perform most physical tasks completely anaerobic. Jeno and he are pathetic air breathers and they need to plan this well, because she will catch them at this rate.

Jeno is dripping water, which doesn’t bode well for their escape. Donghyuck keeps their path towards the other side of the ring, trying to think of possible solutions to their problem when Jeno suddenly releases his hand.

Donghyuck turns to look at his friend, but he’s already turning off a side path.

“You’ll last longer anyway, Hyuck, I’ll try to lead her somewhere else.”

Donghyuck stomps his foot, because he’s right but it sucks, “Jeno!”

“Go on, it’s the first match and I’m already royally fucked, Jisung will over achieve anyway and grab two.”

That’s not entirely untrue, so Donghyuck turns away from Jeno’s resigned smile and makes sure to stomp the first few steps to further accentuate his frustration.

And then he’s running away from Jeno and his stupid rationality.

**3) Getting Screwed by Zhong Chenle**

Donghyuck is amazed by how much the class thinning out has eased evaluations.

Once the new training year starts, it’s always weird to realize that some people do drop out. The first evaluation ever had sported twice the people it does now, and Donghyuck remembers being out of breath from how much he had to fend off his classmates, even though most of them were not skilled in any meaningful way at that point.

He jogs for five minutes before hearing any chaos.

Smiling, he runs towards the noise, slowing as he approaches.

They don’t see him in their distraction.

There are at least seven different people throwing down in front of him. Scanning the sparring quickly, he doesn’t see any of his, but that’s prone to change. Most of them think like him anyways.

They’re circling a pole with two flags, and Donghyuck thinks he can swing this if he does it right. He looks over the open space this team has been placed in, and sees an entrance further down as well as an exit parallel of it on the clearing.

He moves back into the maze, going further down before moving towards the fight again. Whoever’s team this is, they’ve really lost the lottery on their placement this round, this large clearing is going to be their downfall. The people guarding are holding their ground well, but opportunity arises when they force their attackers away from the far wall and into the middle of the arena. It keeps them away, but leaves all their backs to his alcove. No one sees him. He waits until one dives forward, snatching a light from an attacker, and then Donghyuck moves.

His weight falls on the balls of his feet first as he sprints, trying to conceal his footfalls. He all but rips the silks from their horizontal presentation, not even pausing to breathe before reaching the other side of the clearing and sprinting back into the maze.

But, of course, they’re following him.

Donghyuck chances a glance over his shoulders, and takes a second to feel guilty for what he’s about to do. Donghyuck reaches a wall, turns quickly to sweep Yangyang’s feet from under him. He pulls the light from his waist and as his team mate rounds the corner, he vaults it in her face. The kid rebounds, grabbing her nose, and Donghyuck is off again.

“Sorry Yangyang!”

When he rounds the next corner he collides with blond hair.

The menace screams.

“Donghyuck!” Chenle grabs his arms, and Donghyuck all but tosses him up a side path when he sees the whole stampede following his teammate.

“Now’s not a great time for reunions, Chenle!”

They take off down the path back to their side of the arena and he catches his friend’s mischievous grin in his peripheral vision, “You’re telling me you’re not happy to see me?”

Donghyuck whips his head to him, “I was aiming for discretion.”

A faux offended gasp, “And I’m not discreet?”

They turn a corner, and run straight into another team.

“They have flags!” _God damnit,_ it’s Jinsol again.

They turn around but the other teams are already too close to double back on. Donghyuck’s stomach drops and his adrenaline floors.

Chenle grumbles, “This doesn’t seem to end well, where’s our backup when we need them?”

Donghyuck looks at Chenle, alone, and finally takes the time to recognize that as odd, “Yeah, where’s Jisung anyway?”

**4) Being Park Jisung’s punching bag**

Like the demon Donghyuck privately considers him to be, Jisung appears at the call of his name.

He’s no more than a flash of color from the way they arrived from, but he’s there as soon as he’s needed. Donghyuck registers pain as that young monster uses his chest as a spring board to change direction, colliding with Jinsol’s center of mass and tearing her light from her waist. He stops, standing in real time for the first time since he’s entered the fight, and tears the light from a stock still Yerim before turning to Donghyuck with a shit-eating expression and a flag in his hand.

Chenle cheers enthusiastically, Donghyuck just tries to convey silent exasperation and thanks through his empty gaze.

Jisung flashes a thumbs up, then turns into a flash of color before springing past them to turn back to the group of people that has now realized getting closer is not the right move.

Donghyuck is grateful, and very impressed, but it would cost him all his pride and a bit more to admit it. Jinsol was the first person to adopt a specialty at an appropriate time training wise, but Jisung was the first to get one at all. He’s already the youngest in their training year by a mere few months, but he was already a prodigy in all ways that counted. When he developed fumbling super speed late last year, people were surprised, but not too surprised because if anyone was going to develop an insanely enviable superpower at a ridiculously young age, it was going to be Park Jisung.

Chenle and Donghyuck dove in after him, tearing lights off of the people Jisung shoved aside, and watching with tired amusement as Jisung sent a fair few of them running to easier targets.

The chaos dies down and Donghyuck leans up against the wall to catch his breath. Suddenly, Jisung flashes by. He returns to a normal speed for Chenle to grab onto his back. Chenle sticks his tongue out as Jisung salutes with the hand holding the flag.

“See you at base, Hyuck!”

And in a flash of wind and fuzzy color, Jisung is gone.

**5) Finding Na Jaemin**

Donghyuck wastes no time on his retreat. This is the end game, time is of the essence. He ends up falling on his face after jumping the moat, but he supposes enhanced mobility can only take you so far. Still, with fumbling feet beneath him, he makes it into the maze with a determined speed.

He’s so close to where he believes base is when he hears footsteps join his behind him.

A quick glance over his shoulder makes him cuss under his breath. The girls are really out for blood today. It’s Jungeun, and he just needs to keep going forward. There’s no point in picking a fight when there’s solid odds of losing.

His arms pump as hard as they can and he wills himself forward with all his might. He slides under the overhang he had hid under at the beginning and is tumbling to his feet with Jungeun much closer than she was before. Briefly, he considers yelling for help, but doesn’t want to chance other people finding his base if they ended up with less flags than Donghyuck assumes they do. He finally reaches the wall he had vaulted Renjun over at the beginning of the evaluation, and roughly corners it further along.

The first thing he registers is the three flags hanging on their base, the second is his boyfriend.

“Jaemin!” Donghyuck yells, and chucks the balled up flags at his waiting form.

Jungeun tears his light off, but it doesn’t matter because it comes a mere second after the bell announcing their victory sounds.

Behind him, he hears Jungeun groan in exasperation, but Donghyuck can’t be polite enough to hold back his whoop of exhilaration. He rushes forward and into the arms of his equally excited teammate as the exit doors open in the floor around them.

They did it. They won their first evaluation this year. It’s a great start, a fantastic first step.

Donghyuck lets his beanpole of a significant other spin him around and around, lets himself breathe in the elation of victory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He reunites with the rest of his team in the training lobby. His other classmates have broken down into their respective teams that they’ve chosen for the first evaluation and are sitting on couches around the large TVs. Some team selections are more more rigid and some flux constantly. Donghyuck has never competed with anyone but the five he did today.

Renjun stands up and smacks him on the back in a way that may look like over enthusiastic congratulations but Donghyuck knows is just well disguised friendly harassment.

His friend laughs at his disgruntled expression and smiles, “We did it, Hyuck, you can finally unclench a little bit!”

He jokingly swings at him, but Renjun is gone as fast as he was there, flopping on the couch beside Jeno.

Jaemin tugs him down beside him, and they sit on the floor around the couch a still dripping Jeno chose for themselves. They look up at the screens, waiting for their mentors to push the results through to them. Donghyuck knows that their team will be at the top due to them winning, but it’s possible some high ranking classmates have wormed their way up into their ranks due to their performance. He knows that’s fine, but he still feels the pit in his stomach at the idea of any of them dropping the slightest amount.

The post examination chatter falls away, and the screens light up.

Chenle immediately starts cackling and Jisung’s eyebrows fly up. Jaemin turns to Jeno with a malicious grin while Donghyuck looks up at his friend with a long suffering sigh.

“You really let Jinsol get you out?” he asks with a sigh.

Ranked first this month is Jisung but considering all the ass he kicked today, it’s not overly surprising. Donghyuck is second, followed by Renjun, Jaemin, Chenle, then Jungeun. And then Jeno, who beside his name has the indicator of someone who was tagged out.

“It wasn’t Jinsol!” Jeno exclaims.

It’s Jaemin’s turn to giggle, and Donghyuck feels his jaw drop, “How does that make it better?”

Jeno is giggling too, and it makes Donghyuck feel slightly better that he isn’t taking it hard at all, “I had actually grabbed a flag I’ll have you know! I got caught by Jungeun on the way back!”

Jaemin playfully hits Jeno’s thigh, “Their team was really on top of it today.”

“They were!” Donghyuck affirms, “I hope they never arrange themselves like that again.”

He makes eye contact with Jaemin and feels a smile come back to face when Jaemin looks at him with mischief and happiness in his eyes.

Chenle gags and Donghyuck turns back to the board, scanning the rest of the placements. He feels a pang of guilt when he sees Yangyang’s lower placement but when he looks over he sees the boy laughing along with his other teammates. He steals himself for a moment, wanting to say something to cross the weird bridge of quasi friendship he has with Yangyang, but before he can get a joke out Jinsol hollers from across the room.

“Looks like dream team has done it again!”

Donghyuck looks over at her, and she has genuine friendliness on her features but the tease comes through clear enough.

“Don’t be mad because we can show you up no matter the team, Jinsol,” Jaemin quips back.

Jungeun leans over the back of her couch, poised to make a comment that Donghyuck can sense is about him, but the low rumble of something unfamiliar and destructive cuts all talk short.

They all look around in confusion, as if one of them would have the answer to the rumbling in the room. Except, suddenly someone does.

“Look!” Yerim calls, “The TS Labs building is collapsing!”

His classmates move together like a chaotic and choppy wave. There aren’t too many people to begin with, but all the trampling feet leave him pushed up against Jaemin’s back in the stampede. It’s not a long moment where he’s left blind to the action, but it feels like forever before Jaemin gently pulls him around him and lets him be right against the floor to ceiling windows

And wow, the carnage looks spectacular from here.

Distantly, he registers the alarms of the Super Management building going off, but no one else seems to pay it any mind either. Instead, their eyes stay glued to where they can see the building falling from between the neighboring buildings. They’re on a relatively low floor of Super Management’s skyscraper, but its still far enough up that the dust and debris off the corporate skyscraper can be seen with ease. It feels like slow motion, watching the sides blow out and fall towards the street. The horror sets in quick, thinking of all the people caught in that, and is cut off quicker by Jisung’s sigh of wonder and Chenle’s excited yell of, “It’s 127!”

Sure enough, it was.

Someone goes flying by the window of their floor, and everyone screams in mindless hero worship. Donghyuck can’t see from here, but he does feel the rush of adrenaline everyone gets when they see superheroes in action. He watches, breathless, as two more soar by with high speed. None of the nine that make up the top defense team can really fly, but seeing them use their hover technology and the grapples their suits have makes it feel like watching Superman.

“Hey kids, back away from the windows! We don’t know what’s going on so let’s move to the center of the building!”

They let out a collective groan of children admonished, and start to back away from the windows. Once he’s less squished, he can see that it was their head teacher who told them off.

“Come on, Mrs. Park, I’m sure we’ll be fine by the window, we can’t see anything inside!” Chenle whines as he passes her and Renjun is quick to put him in a headlock before his teacher can scold him for his behavior.

They file into the hallway that wraps around the training ring. Slowly, they make their way down and towards the stairs that lead into the main lobby of the building.

“I wonder what _is_ going on,” Jeno mumbles.

Renjun is quick to answer, “Experiment gone wrong? They’ve always seen shady to me.”

Donghyuck can picture it in his head, a chemist putting the wrong vial into a mixture and the whole lab going faster than you can say, “Oops,” a new breed of super villain blowing up a tower for vengeance, a genetic abomination of a monster escaping from the bottom floor. At the image of comical destruction, he laughs despite the residual fear that lingers after seeing tragedy.

“Can you imagine that? A whole building going like that because someone screwed up reading the name on a vial?” Donghyuck cackles to the dirty looks his peers give him.

Renjun laughs along, “Sending Team 127 to clean up a chemical spill?”

Him, Renjun, Jeno, and Jaemin all silently laugh along but stop as soon as they notice the screens that usually ran announcements are displaying the breaking news.

From the first time Donghyuck had stepped into the lobby of Super Management, he had immediately felt the passion the building held. He had secretly feared the worst up until his first step through the door: that it was a corporation, that it didn’t care for the kids it was raising, that it wasn’t the place to run when you found out you weren’t quite the same as everyone else. Instead, he found a large round lobby with white marble floors and murals spanning the two story walls. All the furniture was decked in ruby red and no matter the time of day it either bustled with trainees or tourists longing to see the next heroes of Neo City or, better yet, the current ones. Donghyuck remembers his first time walking through the large glass doors and seeing the announcements on the screens above the receptionists and the disbelief that he was soon to be a part of that.

The carnage shown doesn’t belong there.

However it was, in some ways, a relief to see it. Something dangerous must have been happening earlier in the day, because the news helicopter footage shows streets hastily cordoned off a good distance from the building. Donghyuck hopes that means that there were less casualties than what a building collapsing would entail, but his mind gets caught on everyone working in the building.

It’s eerily quiet since the screens aren’t equipped with audio. He watches in silence with everyone else as someone from Team 127 swoops in from above, being hastily wheeled in by a grappling hook they shot into the ground of the calming dust. The copter swoops closer, and Donghyuck feels his hair stand on end. The hero is Jaehyun, that’s visible now, and he’s just, standing outside of the rubble. The frustration in the lobby grows palpable, and Donghyuck is sure everyone is just wanting him to dive in and _move_ the rubble. All superhumans, regardless of specialty, have enhanced physical aspects, so Donghyuck knows it’s possible. It makes him want to scream that there’s lives on the line.

But then the rubble moves.

Donghyuck was joking in his head about the monster, but that’s the only way to describe what pushes past the broken building and out into the air. He’s part of the horrified gasp that sweeps the room, but before the abomination of amalgous flesh that rises from the building can run, it’s trapped.

Jung Jaehyun’s specialty is force fields.

A red bubble of fizzy electricity surrounds the animal as soon as it’s completely unearthed, and the relief comes as quickly as the disgust had. Someone else lands, and a rather large cage comes right after. The reaction that follows is localized to his team, but it is as strong and immediate as it is every time they see Lee Mark in action.

With his telekinesis, he hovers the cage around the monster. Jaehyun drops the field as Mark drops the box. As soon as it’s trapped again, Mark uses his power to shove the cage and the beast onto its side, and close the door he had used to let the monster in. The lobby breaks out in cheers, and the footage cuts back to a news commentator.

Donghyuck feels bad for thinking it’s lackluster.

Over the loud speakers, instructions come to head up to the training rooms for further debriefing from the examination, and to proceed as normal with the day. The announcements pop back onto the screens, and slowly life returns to the lobby of Super Management.

His team looks at each other, and they move towards the stairs in a relatively silent mass.

“That’s going to be us one day,” Donghyuck hums to break it.

Jaemin bumps his hip, and they meet eyes with a smile.

“With how our dictator works us to the bone, I would sure hope so.”

Jaemin takes off running just as Donghyuck starts to give chase. He can hear Jeno grumbling about couples in the background, but Donghyuck just lets the happiness of the moment take over.

They are going to be superheroes. He knows the odds are next to impossible, but he swears it’s going to happen. In all the years Super Management has been functioning, they’ve only put out nine super hero teams, and one has been BoA all on her own. When you come to train, it’s a known fact that when they hand you the specialized job you’re guaranteed for training, it’s hardly ever defending the country and the world. Still, Donghyuck has high hopes. He’s done everything to assure their future. He’s kept his team in the top six spots of the rankings every year since the first time they agreed to stick together. Team 127, the premier defense team for Neo City, debuted the day after they were orientated two years ago. They’ve got to finish this year of training and move onto one more, and by then it will be time for another team to come forward. Sure, they won’t be a 127, the group that replaced Girls’ Generation as the top defense team, but they can still kick ass like Red Velvet or SHINee or EXO or any other team that achieves great things in their own way.

He catches Jaemin in the door to the stairs, throwing his arms around his boyfriend’s waist and hauling him backwards with a laugh. Jaemin spins around the moment his feet hit the ground and digs his fingers into Donghyuck’s ribs, forcing pained laughter from him.

Renjun darts up and tickles Jaemin from behind before sprinting away. Jeno’s exasperation in evident, but he still has an easy smile on his damp face. Jisung and Chenle are laughing at them to themselves, and it’s endearing as much as it is obnoxious.

They’re going to do incredible things, and they’re going to do them together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Donghyuck’s favorite part of evaluations isn’t the elation that comes from coming out on top, though it would be noble to claim it was. Instead, it’s the evening afterwards. Once the adrenaline fades down and the remnants get washed down the shower drain, it’s the warmth and comfort of the tamped down embers of success he looks forward to.

And date night.

It’s an old tradition that begins every evening after at 9:30 at the absolute earliest. Tonight it’s an earlier one, and there’s still a late summer haze of sunset to the air when he takes Jaemin’s hand outside of their door.

Living in the building isn’t required, but it’s provided in training and for the kids who move long distances and the adults that don’t want to pay rent for an apartment near Super Management’s prime real estate, it’s a valid option. There aren’t that many defined rules to living in the building, but the two of them stepping into the elevator past the time explicitly listed on the schedule as “curfew” is certainly frowned upon. But Donghyuck rests his head on Jaemin’s shoulder, and it’s been nearly two years at this point. This is the part that they don’t think about anymore.

The doors open on the empty training floor and they quietly peer around for the rotating night guards, superhumans who’s given job at the end of training was to stay and guard the upcoming generation. Donghyuck’s hand rests on the side of the door, keeping it open, but once the silence remains still they dart out towards the staircase.

The lower floors are the high risk situation, and it’s reflected in the way their hands drop, their footsteps getting lighter and distinctly choreographed. They step out at the bottom of the main stairwell, peer into the lobby. This wait is longer, makes Donghyuck hold longer breaths. It wouldn’t be the end of the world if they got caught right now, but it certainly gets more apocalyptic by the step. By the time the security guard near the front door sweeps into the secretaries’ break room, the residual adrenaline from the day is coursing in full force.

Together they push open the door and close it in the same breath. With light feet, they sprint across the now eerie lobby and to the maintenance door on the opposing side of the building. The lock closes silently due to practiced skill and the following sigh of relief is similarly quiet. From beyond the door, the light returns. However, the guard is unbothered and smooth in their motions. The hard part is over.

Donghyuck interlaces his finger’s with Jaemin’s again, and they walk down the plain concrete hallway and the following descending stairs. There, they find the building’s storage and service car bay. They walk up to the exit door of the basement, and Jaemin pulls out the spare key he snatched two years ago and unlocks it easily.

A long time ago Donghyuck was perturbed that there was such an easy way in and out of a secure building, but then remembered that everyone inside the building was enough of a deterrent to keep the most determined criminals away. After that, he felt marginally better about the lax security.

Besides, it gave him nights like this.

Wandering the building after curfew was a slap on the wrist, sneaking out was something significantly more forbidden. Perhaps that’s why it’s the perfect date night activity for them. Whatever. Donghyuck doesn’t care. It’s what he looks forward to every month.

Him and Jaemin race from the underground loading dock and up to street level. They laugh to the night sky and the pleasantly bustling sidewalk and when they turn to a more abandoned and less lit corner, he’s pressed up against night-cold bricks and kissed through a smile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They get take out from the 24/7 dinner, because Jaemin asks nicely and Donghyuck only likes pretending to antagonize him before 10:00 PM. They eat it on the rooftop of a nearby apartment, because they’ve been partial to rooftops since Donghyuck confessed on one during their first Hero Day celebration as trainees.

Donghyuck’s feet are illuminated by passing cars and he’s warm in his boyfriend’s hoodie, happy.

“Today was a bit closer than I would’ve liked,” Jaemin admits around a large bite of fries.

Donghyuck nods, and grabs some of the same fries in his greasy hands, “I think we’re just rusty, two months off is longer than I remembered.”

He leans his head on Jaemin’s shoulder, and he dips his posture to accommodate the weight. It sends a brief flight of happy nerves through his body and Donghyuck smiles before sticking the fries in his mouth.

Jaemin grabs the last of the fries, and Donghyuck thinks to tease him for a moment but Jeamin tips them backwards the moment the food is gone. Donghyuck lets out a shrill giggle he stopped being shy about months upon months ago, and Jaemin lets out an over exaggerated happy exhale.

Donghyuck looks up at his boyfriend and sees him looking up at the stars. Jaemin is beautiful, and he’s most beautiful when he’s still like this; calm and unbothered to be putting on a show of personality. He loves all the sides of the boy that’s holding him, but he especially appreciates the rarer moments like these.

Jaemin tips his body to him, smiles. He presses his lips to the crown of his head and Donghyuck subconsciously leans into the touch. When he pulls back, his eyes are closed.

“I missed doing this,” Jaemin admits.

“A whole summer of not having to sneak out wasn’t enough for you?”

Jaemin laughs, but keeps his eyes shut, “Nope. Brunch has nothing on midnight snacks.”

Donghyuck must have started grinning at some point, because his smile is starting to hurt, “How funny, I agree with you. I enjoy our dates so much more when I can’t see your face right.”

Jaemin opens his eyes and smacks Donhyuck’s arm playfully. They’re both giggling, and a cold wind blows abrasively over their bodies. Donghyuck shivers, wraps his arms tighter around Jaemin and pulls his legs closer.

“It’s cold,” Jaemin whines, “When do you want to go home?”

Donghyuck pretends to think about it, “When does the building open again?”

“6:00 AM.”

“So, 5:30?”

Donghyuck laughs again as Jaemin raises his eyebrows, “Can I convince you in any way to let me escort you home earlier?”

He hums, taps his fingers along Jaemin’s spine, “Well, I don’t know. Why are you so motivated to cut our date short, Nana?”

A tired smirk runs along his face, “I’m more partial to cuddling you on an actual bed than truly ending our relations here.”

“Oh really? Well than perhaps I can be persuaded to change our venue.”

“Name your price then, sweetheart, I’m willing to do just about anything.”

Donghyuck leans up swiftly, bring his hand up to cup Jaemin’ cheek. He presses a kiss against his lips, slow and sleepy yet still determined. When he pulls away, Jaemin is smiling in the stupidly endearing way he does when no one’s around to see them lovesick.

“Was that all? That didn’t really feel like a hard bargain to me?”

“That was just your down payment, good sir, I’m not done with you quite yet.”

Donghyuck rolls them over and straddles his boyfriend, pressing kisses all over his smiling face before returning to his lips. They sit there in the late summer cold for awhile, trading slow kisses and approaching sleep at a calming pace.

Eventually Jaemin pulls away and tucks a stray piece of hair behind Donghyuck’s ear. Embarrassingly enough, Donghyuck feels his own secret Na Jaemin smile coming out.

“So, are you inclined to carrying out your side of the deal now, babe?” Jaemin asks.

Donghyuck presses one last quick kiss to his flushed lips before pulling away, “Yeah, I’m happy now.”

Jaemin sits up after him, and Donghyuck is the one to help him stand up. They climb down the building’s fire escape and as their feet hit the sidewalk Jaemin grabs Donghyuck’s outstretched hand.

“Hey babe?” he says.

And Donghyuck looks at him, one eyebrow already raised, because nothing good every comes from Jaemin’s mouth when it starts with, “Hey babe?”

“What?”

Jaemin gives him a shit eating grin, “I love you more than anything.”

Donghyuck groans and tries to tug his hand away from his while Jaemin cackles.

“Gross. I hate you.”

“No you don’t.”

“Yes. I do. I hate you.”

And when Jaemin looks at him, there’s stars in his eyes, which is almost as obnoxiously endearing as what he’s just said. Donghyuck rolls his eyes, but he gets the feeling some galaxies have wormed their way into his too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They sneak back inside successfully, which does not surprise Donghyuck at all. They sit inside the maintenance door for a good ten minutes before the opportunity arises to sprint across to the stairs. They make it in good time and Donghyuck feels confident in the success of tonight as they climb up the stairs.

That is, until Jaemin stops, tugging Donghyuck back down the step he’s mounted and down to the third floor landing.

Donghyuck whips his head around, because what the fuck does he think he’s doing? Jaemin’s hand flies up in a gesture of restraint, and Donghyuck finds himself staring incredulously at the back of his boyfriend’s head.

“Hey, I love you, but what are we doing?” Donghyuck whispers.

Jaemin points through the porthole window on the landing’s door. Through it, comes a landing that circles the lobby, and the first floor further below it.

“It’s 127.”

Well, that’s a bit confusing. Donghyuck feels his face tense in confusion, they surely shouldn’t be here at half past 1:00 in the morning, not after a rather lackluster encounter with a monster this morning. He finds himself pushing past Jaemin, leaning up to the window himself and peering down to the floor of the lobby where things, admittedly, look a bit tense. Without thinking much, Donghyuck gently presses down on the handle of the door, and eases it open just enough to fit him through. Jaemin follows, and he keeps the doorknob turned as they close the door, allowing it to latch quietly in the doorframe.

Together, they duck down and focus on the superheroes through the posts of the rail.

It’s barely audible. In fact, their conversation is so inaudible it’s meaningless. Honestly, it’s disappointing, and Donghyuck feels a bit pathetic for being so eager to eavesdrop on some strangers’ conversation. It’s still exciting to see people who are essentially celebrities and also his own personal role models, but the shame of being a peeping Tom is very present. Donghyuck grabs Jaemin’s bicep and begins to pull them both up, but Jaemin’s free hand is quicker. Roughly, Donghyuck is pulled back down.

Just as abrasive, Donghyuck pushes his mouth against Jaemin’s ear, “Let’s go asshole, we can’t even hear.”

He turns and lets Jaemin whisper just as small into the shell of his ear, “They’re not all there, look.”

Donghyuck furrows his brow, shakes his head, and holds up nine fingers. He counted briefly in his head when they squatted down, there were all nine for sure.

Jaemin points his head back to 127, leans in again, “One is Mrs. Park. Winwin isn’t there.”

Donghyuck shuffles forward in his squated posture, ignoring the risk of being spotted in favor of curiosity now. He looks with more care and, sure enough, Jaemin’s right. It was hard to see in the thin moonlight, but there is nine figures, not all superheroes.

“Why wouldn’t he be there?” Donghyuck mutters. Beside him, Jaemin shrugs.

Their teacher shakes her head suddenly, and whether it is intentional or not, she speaks in a full voice, “Regardless, the lack of contact and resistance is worrying. It means this has developed into a much more dire situation than we originally anticipated.”

Beside her, Seo Johnny ( _Seo Johnny_ , Donghyuck’s mind screams) shakes his head, and responds in a very mild tone of voice. He can’t see from here, but it seems to be nothing calming, everyone’s shoulders hike the smallest bit, Lee Mark rubs his face in a way that isn’t gentle at all. That strange feeling rears up again, that vague familiarity he associates with this particular superhero, but his attention is robbed by the change of body language that comes with Nakamoto Yuta speaking. With the exception of Mrs. Park, a wave of resignation washes over the tired team, and the feeling of voyeurism returns as quick as it was forgotten. Donghyuck turns to Jaemin to suggest retreating now, but a shout disrupts the sentence before it starts.

“Hey! Who’s there!” a deep voice hollers from the floor, and Donghyuck’s heart floors and drops into his stomach when he sees Jung Jaehyun step out towards them.

“ _Fuck._ ” Jaemin understates, and they’re gone.

They start sprinting at the same time Jaehyun does below, and the door is much less kind to their retreat than it was to their entrance. They bolt up the stairs, and it seems that the super suits are off because their pursuit comes on foot as opposed to in air. They step out into the training room and run across the floor and into the elevator on the other side, the doors sliding shut as the stairwell opens across from them.

Donghyuck has never been as grateful for the high tech of the building as he is in this moment. The elevator soars at an incredible pace, and when the doors open they sprint through the lobby of the dorms and into their room. Without sparing a beat, they dive into Donghyuck’s bed, breathing heavily. Donghyuck meets Jaemin’s eyes, the same wide fear and exhilaration reflected in them. Jaemin laughs silently, somehow finding humor in the situation while Donghyuck stays stuck on wide eyed disbelief. Jeno throws a pillow at them, mumbling sleepily and tossing over in his bunk. Like that, the tension in his chest breaks, and he takes up laughing as well.

They push their shoes off quickly, and Donghyuck gently pulls Jaemin closer on top of the covers, too hot from adrenaline to climb under his summer sheets. Together they fall asleep, still in street dirty sweatpants and humidity soaked shirts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_Lee Mark, for lack of a better word, is a sore spot with their team._

_They were friends for a long formative day, and then he was gone the next._

_It goes like this._

_Donghyuck walks into Super Management on orientation morning, a band on his wrist from when he put himself into the system the day before. It’s his second time inside, his second day in Neo City, and the first time he starts to get nervous at the prospect of finally joining up, of finally being with his people. His walk to the receptionist is literally short, but figuratively as long as the journey to this exact building was from the countryside. His wrist shakes as he shows her his wrist band, but she’s all gentle smiles as she points him to the elevator behind him._

_The ride up to the training floor is long, and he’s crowded in with a bunch of other trainees that look much more happy and much more confident than he does. He takes deep breaths, tries to fake it a little bit, but can feel his front slipping like his mother’s smile when he first jumped to the high branches of the tree in their yard with a single bound._

_The doors open, and it’s so alive._

_There’s orientation leaders everywhere, holding up signs of colors and hollering with wide smiles. It’s, overwhelming. Very overwhelming. There’s a significantly long moment where the fear rears up and Donghyuck considers the shame of walking back out the door. But. But, he can’t go back. He came so far and he won’t be scared off by the fear of the unknown. He looks down at his wrist and sees his bright green band. Stumbling forward, he makes his way to the kid waving around the color he has, his voice still cracking when he yells too loud._

_His approach is slow, and he carefully eyes the five people standing behind his leader and ignores the bright smiles of them when they spot his wrist. Slowly, he walks up and taps the leader on the shoulder. The guy jumps, and the snap of amusement in his chest loosens his nerves._

_”Hi, I’m Donghyuck. I think I’m in your group?” he tries to sound confident, but he can feel the cadence of his voice being quieter than what it usually is._

_It doesn’t matter, the kids gives him a warm smile all the same._

_”Sure looks like it,” and he reaches out to shake Donghyuck’s hand, “Nice to meet you, I’m Mark.”_

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Donghyuck wakes up to his usual Saturday alarm, which is Jisung and Chenle murmuring in the bunk above his. It’s never Chenle climbing up or Jisung’s whining at being woken, instead it’s the soft conversation of the mid morning.

As soon as consciousness takes hold, adrenaline slams right after.

He takes a few calming breathes, reminding himself that nothing bad has happened yet, that him and Jaemin hadn’t been caught, but he knew deep down that they are in more shit than they have ever been previously.

Donghyuck lays still on his back, Jaemin’s arm still thrown around his waist, and waits for the room to stir awake while his mind pounds away on the consequences of last night. Saturday was the one day of the week there was no schedules, and that was why evaluations were always held on the last Friday of every month. He threads his fingers in Jaemin’s and slips into a sleepy state with his eyes closed.

Some indiscriminate amount of time later, Jaemin shifts closer, squeezes his arm a little tighter. Donghyuck hums lowly, tilting his head more into the crook of his shoulder.

Across the room, he hears sheets shift and a loud yawn, “Good morning,” Jeno says, well aware most of them were awake.

“Good morning, Jeno,” Donghyuck croons, content to finally open his eyes.

“It’s too early, Jeno,” Renjun moans from his bunk, and Jeno slams his foot up to the bottom of his mattress.

Jaemin nuzzles into Donghyuck’s hair, breathes out long.

“Wake up, babe,” Donghyuck whispers, ignoring the room’s typical morning squabbling.

“It’s not too early, it’s nearly 9:30 in the morning!”

“On a Saturday! Can I not sleep in ‘till noon?”  
“Renjun, you hate eating lunch as your first meal.”

“I can eat breakfast at any time, Jisung.”

“The cafeteria only does breakfast ‘till 11:00!”

As a pillow goes flying, Jaemin laughs into his hair, and then he sighs again.

“Donghyuck, we’re so screwed,” he whispers, and Donghyuck knows. His heart pounding tells him that he knows.

“I know,” he replies.

“What are we going to do?” Jaemin asks, and Donghyuck is only honed into him, not the quieting of the room.

“Own up if they ask? I’m not sure. I don’t know what the repercussions are, it’s not like we heard anything.”

“Yeah, but we were trying to.”

Jaemin pulls him closer, and that’s when Donghyuck notices the silence. The creak of Renjun’s mattress tells him that he’s shifting, and Donghyuck can’t bring himself to look.

“What did you guys do?” Renjun asks, but it’s not accusatory or exasperated, just genuinely worried.

Renjun is a good friend, and so is Jeno, “Yeah, you guys came bolting inside last night. Did something go wrong?”

Chenle, for once, doesn’t sound teasing, “Got caught?”

After a short pause, Jaemin sits up and Donghyuck pushes himself up right after. Jaemin rubs the sleep out of his eyes, feigning nonchalantness but his lack of eye contact with anyone in the room tells otherwise. It’s okay. Donghyuck gets it. He also doesn’t want to admit that they fucked up.

Jaemin confesses, “So, we saw 127 while we were heading back up.”

“What!” Jisung exclaims, “Where?”

“In the lobby,” Donghyuck answers, “We were on the viewing platform and watched them below. We couldn’t really hear them, but it seems like they were having a really serious talk with Mrs. Park. And they saw us, well, Jung Jaehyun saw us. They didn’t catch us but-“

Donghyuck looks at Jaemin, and he looks similarly downtrodden. Security guards. Cameras. A multibillion dollar skyscraper equipped to protect future super kids. They clearly don’t check it constantly, because they’ve been going worry free for years, but now they will roll back the footage and chase through it for the phantoms in the night. They either know who it was currently, or would know it very soon. No more date nights, no more sneaking out, perhaps real tangible consequences as well. It’s all very frightening.

“They’ll know,” Renjun states simply, and Donghyuck finds himself rubbing his face too.

“Yeah,” and he places his hand on Jaemin’s thigh, “Yeah we know.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Donghyuck’s nerves peak early in the day, expecting to step out of their room and find President Sooman and a whole flock of guards waiting for him to step into their waiting arms. Instead, it’s normal, so normal it hurts his poor distressed chest. They eat breakfast together, play video games together, draw on Renjun’s face while he takes a nap together. He gets his ass kicked by Jisung in a sparring match, accompanies Jeno to the bookstore down the street, has a really nice day. By the time he settles down with his team and a hand full of other friends to watch a movie, he’s forced the thought of being caught from his mind. If they cared, they would’ve grabbed them by now, right? He rationalizes himself down from the brink of panic as the movie begins to roll, even if his stubborn heart still skips beats out of habit.

The doors to the elevator slide open, and Soyeon pauses the opening scene as Mrs. Park steps into the room alongside another woman Donghyuck has never seen before. Mrs. Park briefly scans their living room lobby, and Jaemin’s hand slips into his.

Her eyes land on his, and she inclines her head slightly, “Donghyuck.”

Fuck.

Spoke too soon.

He stands up calmly, ignoring Jaemin’s fearful glance and the calming hand Jeno runs down his forearm.

“Just Donghyuck?” Jaemin asks with an uneven voice, and Donghyuck wants to slap the self sacrifice right out of him.

Mrs. Park nods, “Yes. Just Donghyuck. Don’t worry, he’ll be back to catch the end of,” She squints at the screen, “ _Iron Man 2_.”

The last thing he hears before the elevator closes is Jisung’s soft voice asking, “Why did that sound judgmental?”

“Shut _up_ Jisung.”

And then the firm quiet.

The unfamiliar woman swipes her ID card, which lights up floors on the elevator that Donghyuck had never seen on before. The panic is creeping back as she hits one of the buttons, and he lets out some of the nervous energy through the tapping of his foot on the floor and the squeezing of his fingers between his hands. The screen displaying the floor number soars up, far higher than any of the trainees have ever been allowed to go. Above the training rooms and the makeshift museum displays. Above the classrooms and medical wards. As far as he knows, above the administrative levels and deluxe penthouses reserved for lobbyists and politicians on extended negotiations. There 83 floors to the Super Management skyscraper, and the elevator finally glides to a stop of floor 71.

The doors pull open, and the floor is only lit by a few emergency lights that hang from scattered spots above empty cubicles. The women step out and start marching across the floor. This whole situation makes Donghyuck feel vaguely like he’s about to die. After a few seconds of watching them walk, his mind finally catches up to his body and he forces himself out of the elevator with inelegant hurry and he sprints up until he’s following just behind them. They turn at the end of the aisle of desks and move towards the Western side of the building. Donghyuck looks out the wide windows and squints against the harsh light of the sunset.

It’s another few silent steps, and then he can’t take it anymore, “Is this about last night?”

Mrs. Park looks at him directly for the first time, and she gives him an expression that feels like smile but much more tired, “No, that incident is circumstantial to why we need you.”

She turns around, and now Donghyuck is more confused, “So Jaemin and I aren’t in trouble?”

This time she doesn’t turn around, “No. Don’t worry about your blatant rule breaking, it’s been stricken from the books.”

 _Oh my God, what’s happening_ , “And is the reason for that related to this?”

They reach a door, and the other woman looks back at Mrs. Park. Together, they smile in a way that speaks of knowing more than him.

“Yes, in fact it is,” the other woman says, and pulls open the door.

If Donghyuck hadn’t known something awful was happening earlier, he sure knows now. There’s another person in the room, and it’s President Sooman.

Mrs. Park and the other woman step inside, beckon after him. He steps in, only because he knows that running won’t let him escape. But every part of him screams to not be there, to not enter into this situation. The door closes, and President Sooman ushers him to a seat.

He sits down slowly, prolonging the inevitable, and the President of Super Management sits down across from him. Mrs. Park steps across the room to stand in Donghyuck’s field of view, and so does the unfamiliar woman. Yet as she walks, something isn’t right. It’s as if she’s underwater, her image rippling in the low light of this meeting space. Then, sudden and harsh, her visage falls away like a loose piece of cloth. Donghyuck doesn’t gasp only because his hand comes up to his mouth to conceal his shock. It’s BoA. The original superhero. The chameleon woman who infiltrated the old government and threw the oppressive board of ruler’s from the throne the people wanted torn down. She saved their country from fledgling dictators, a whole era of terror they will never know the horrors of.

This must be serious.

Fuck.

He slowly lowers his hand, ignoring the amusement on BoA’s face, “What’s going on?”

President Sooman shifts forward, “Lee Donghyuck-“

“Yes.”

He laughs, and his cheeks heat in fast embarrassment, “Lee Donghyuck, you are perhaps the most stellar candidate in the whole of our training program, are you aware of that?”

Honestly? No. Not at all. He’s spent so long fighting to be extraordinary that sometimes he forgets that he is. He set the bar for himself at the top, so he’s only ever seen himself just making it or falling severely below. The compliment takes a long moment to sneak past his emotional defenses, and he shakes his head with wide eyes.

“You are,” the president affirms, and this can’t be real, “You have a high level of independence and leadership skills, as well as being highly practiced despite not having shown any signs of a developing a specialty yet. It’s incredible, I can see you holding your own in a fight with some of our best fourth year trainees. I hope you realize that.”

He doesn’t.

“Regardless,” he continues, “that is why we’ve brought you here over anyone else. I would give you more context, but from my understanding, you were one of the two people who were listening in on 127 last night?”

Donghyuck is quick to jump on the defense him and Jaemin have been reciting all day, “We didn’t actually hear anything, we were too far up, we were mostly just caught up in watching people we really respect-“

A laugh cuts him off, and BoA catches her chuckle with her hand. She’s visibly amused, and so is everyone in the room. It feels a bit like being laughed at.

“That’s not what’s important,” Sooman clarifies, “I’m sure you noted their missing member.”

Donghyuck forces himself to relax into the chair and focus on the only person talking, “Yes, Winwin wasn’t there.”

“Indeed. Sicheng has another matter that has required his personal and full attention recently, and for the near future it’s become apparent that he will be taking a brief hiatus from the main defense team.”

It feels shocking, no one has ever taken a hiatus from a team. Left, yes, but an extended term of leave is all but unheard of.

“What’s his mission?” Donghyuck knows he sounds endlessly confused.

“We can’t discuss that with you quite yet.”

_Quite yet?_

“Any ways,” President Sooman waves the topic away, “The topic of additions to Team 127 has been thrown around since their first mission. They work well together, but agree that they sometimes a bit overwhelmed due to their very specialized skills. Taeyong, Yuta, and Jungwoo are the only ones who can move between battle tasks easily due to their specialties, and because of this they’ve all expressed repeated interest in perhaps adding onto their team.”

Donghyuck freezes, and it feels like the meaning of that information is hitting him square against his forehead and falling to the floor among his feet. He can feel the awareness of its implications around the edges of his mind, but he doesn’t let it get any further, doesn’t want it to mean what it does.

“Now, Sicheng is not available for missions, and we are admittedly coming up on something that may end up resulting in a very large conflict in Neo City, so it only makes sense that now is the time to add on if we ever intend to,” the president stares into his eyes with a steady intensity.

The implications come crashing over him like a cruel wave breaking on his mind.

“Me?” Donghyuck asks, his voice quiet and filled with a special kind of fear that comes from your future taking a firm left turn into someplace completely unknown.

“Yes,” Sooman answers, “You’re incredible, and Mrs. Park and Ms. Kwon here have both assured me that your aspirations were to be a superhero at the end of training, so I’m sure that this news isn’t completely unpleasant to you.”

But it is. Donghyuck looks at BoA, only to find another Mrs. Park standing there, sending him a wink. None of this feels real.

His eyes are stinging a little bit, and he brings forward the problem with this whole situation, “What about my team?”

President Sooman cocks his head in a friendly way that shows that he doesn’t quite understand, “I’m sure they’ll be quite happy for you.”

“No, not that,” Donghyuck rushes out, “I wanted to work with them in the future. We planned on being a team together.”

He sighs, leaning back in his chair, a certain kind of pity in his eyes, “It’s quite possible they will still debut as heroes at the end of training.”

Donghyuck shakes his head, “But is this a permanent gig for me? Could I join them?”

Sooman shakes his head, “This would be your one placement.”

Donghyuck doesn’t answer. Instead, he fights down the scrunching of his face, the cracking of his voice, the panicked voice in his mind that’s telling him this is all wrong. He presses the heels of his palms against his eyes, breathes out slowly. He opens his eyes again, and looks back at the people in front of him. There’s an overall look of pity to everyone, but BoA is the only one who looks truly sad.

“Can I choose to not join and finish my training, would that be okay?” he asks quietly.

President Sooman meets his eyes, “This is what we’re offering you.”

That’s a shot to the heart.

Every trainee knows that sentence, and everyone silently dreads it. You finish four years of hard work and then they lead you into a room after your certificate of completion and tell you what job is best for you, where they would like to place you. That’s the guarantee of training with Super Management, that you will be given a job that pays you above average salary and fits the niche of your specialty. You only get one. No matter if it’s the one you wanted or the one you anticipated, they look you in the eye and tell you, “This is what we’re offering you,” and you either take it or you walk out with nothing but a sheet of paper for your last four years.

This what they’re offering him.

He swipes the tear that starts to creep from his eye, “Can I think about?” because he just wants to delay whatever will follow by a little bit.

Sooman nods, “But we’d like to know by tomorrow morning, we want you training on Monday.”

 _That soon?_ But it’s all too soon. Donghyuck nods and stands up. BoA darts forward.

“Here, let me walk you back,” even her voice sounds different than when she was that anonymous woman.

Donghyuck nods, and they are the only ones who leave the room.

Together, they walk quietly to the elevator. Donghyuck keeps his eyes on the floor passing below, the drab grayness of it and how it will be the color he remembers when he thinks of his life changing.

When the elevator closes, it’s more personal than last time. BoA turns towards him, and he’s too exhausted to still be in awe.

“I know this probably isn’t the good news the president thought it would be, I didn’t know you felt that strongly about your team. I sit in on training sometimes, but not enough to see that. I’m very sorry.”

Donghyuck looks up at her, and squeezes his hands harder together, “They’re my family, I don’t really have my first one.”

Most superhumans know what that means, and she nods in understanding, “I just want you to know that this wouldn’t be the end of that. When Mr. Sooman originally proposed the idea of me being some kind of hero like the ones in movies years ago, I had anticipated being on a team with people I considered family in the same way. However, you know what I had to do, it could only be me and me alone.”

Donghyuck nods. She smiles sadly and places a warm hand on his shoulder, “We still talk often. We’re still family. We don’t live together and we don’t see each other constantly, but that’s because I am an adult and I have other responsibilities. Me being apart from them didn’t make them less of my family, it just made me independent. I know that still isn’t what you wanted, but I hope you know that you will still have them even if you are brought apart.”

When Donghyuck meets her eyes, she is Mrs. Park, which is both shocking and not. He nods, and she smiles in a way that seems foreign on his teacher’s face. The elevator doors open, and he steps out into their living space.

The doors close, and Renjun is already on his feet, Jeno and Jaemin look up and move in their own time. His whole team comes up to him, and it becomes much harder to hold back his distress.

“What’s wrong? Do we need to talk?” Renjun asks.

Donghyuck nods, and lets them pull him past prying eyes and into privacy.

He finally lets himself cry as the door shuts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Donghyuck goes up three floors to the teacher’s offices. He’s still dressed in worn sweatpants and Jaemin’s hoodie, his pajamas from last night. He knocks on Mrs. Park’s door, and lets his eyes rest on the clock that reads 8:23 AM. Her door swings open and he simply nods, she invites him inside.

She tells him then, he’ll be moving out in the evening.

His whole team gets a pardon from the day’s activities, and he walks back down with heavy feet and the time which he will be escorted out of the training dorms for the last time, 7:00 PM. When the elevator lets him back out into the living room, inquisitive eyes follow him into his bedroom. None of them know, and none of them will for awhile.

He looks over his slowly waking team. It’s just them for now.

Jaemin is the only one fully awake, and he makes grabby hands for him from where he sits crisscrossed on their bed. The bed dips as Donghyuck sits, placing his head into the joint of his neck and his shoulder. He ignores the sadness of his boyfriends eyes just like he knows he’ll be avoiding it in everyone’s eyes today. Last night was emotional, to say the least.

Tearful eyes had been rampant when Donghyuck explained what was going on, what it meant for him and them. There was a long silence when he was done. Then there was Renjun.

“Hyuck, you have to do it,” he had said.

Donghyuck remembers shaking his head desperately, but Jeno put an arm around his shoulders and nodded, “Donghyuck, if this is the only way for you to be a hero, you have to do it.”

“You have to,” Renjun had repeated.

Donghyucks gaze had been skittering around the room, and when he saw Jaemin’s calm smile, he had leaned forward and sobbed.

“I don’t want to, I don’t think I’m ready yet,” he got out somewhere along the way.

Jisung was just sniffling, and Chenle rubbed a hand on Hyuck’s back. Jaemin leaned forward, and Donghyuck remembers being glad that Jaemin hadn’t cried yet. His boyfriend stroked a tear from his cheek, and said what Donghyuck has been reminding himself of since then, “BoA was right, we’re always gonna be here for you and in two years, we’re just going to meet you out there. We’ll probably be a lot better than you by then too,” he smiled, “This is what you need to do to get there with us.”

Donghyuck breathes in deeply in the present. He keeps reminding himself that this is right, that it’s unexpected but a gift. It’s just a whirlwind until he settles in, but he will be able to settle in.

He pulls back from Jaemin and frames his hands around his face. Jaemin leans in, and Donghyuck smiles mischievously as he presses his cheeks together instead. Soft laughter escapes Donghyuck when Jaemin just whines as Donghyuck scrunches his face up. He releases him, and then kisses him quickly. Jaemin catches him before he can fully retreat, kissing him again more firmly.

“We’re awake now, stop doing that,” Chenle complains with his morning voice.

Donghyuck pulls back and flips Chenle off on his bunk. Chenle gives it back to him, and it becomes easier to smile.

He looks back to Jaemin, who’s pouting at him. Donghyuck rolls his eyes, smacks Jaemin’s sleep swollen face slightly and ignores his resulting scoff, “Breakfast? And then I need to pack.”

There’s a groan of ascent from the Renjun shaped lump across the room, and Donghyuck fights back the sadness from seeing Jaemin sober in front of him. He still hasn’t cried, but he’s melancholy behind his bright attitude it makes Donghyuck just as down.

Jaemin smiles, but it’s pretty transparent, “Yeah babe, sounds like a plan,” and Chenle gags.

They eat together, dragging a half conscious Jeno behind them the whole way. (“I only function on eight hours of sleep, not six hours of sleep and two hours of emotional turmoil,” he had complained.) When they return to the dorm, everyone’s getting ready to head to the Sunday afternoon training, the small weekend task they are assigned. They walk past and into their rooms, and the attention is getting harder to ignore. Donghyuck hears whispering, sees Yerim and Jungeun in the corner, all the people watching with eager eyes. It’s hard, but he just walks faster.

On his way across the living room, someone’s hand lands on his back and when he turns, he sees Yangyang. He looks painfully reluctant, and Donghyuck stands a little on edge, not really sure how much of the truth he owes someone that is almost a close friend and almost not. He regrets not being able to push their relationship into certain friendship before he leaves.

Yangyang hesitates for a second, visibly rethinking his actions, before meeting Donghyuck’s eyes, “Is everything okay? You all seem a little weird.”

His heart in his chest swells, and he feels so guilty for not trying harder to make a friend, for not trying harder to get to know Yangyang, “Yeah,” he replies, “some weird stuff is happening, but everything’s fine.”

“Okay,” Yangyang swallows, and Donghyuck hates how they’ve both ended up restrained to the awkward fronts they’re putting up as opposed to the boisterous truth he knows they both are, “Um, I know we’re not overly close, but if you do ever need to talk to someone else, I’m a good listener! Even though it doesn’t really seem like it.”

He laughs awkwardly, and Donghyuck smiles genuinely, “Thank you, I hope I get to take you up on that one day.”

And he does, even though he won’t. Yangyang takes a deep breath in and nods, smiling awkwardly. Donghyuck gives him a wave goodbye, and starts to walk away before the emotions can swallow him up again.

Inside his room, Renjun pulls his drawers of clothes out and dumps them all over the floor.

Donghyuck stares at him.

“Thanks.”

Renjun stares back, grinning.

“You’re welcome.”

“Gentlemen, please,” Jeno pleads, dropping two suitcases on the floor.

Renjun and Chenle have both donated a suitcase to Donghyuck’s cause, having an excess of them since they travel home during the breaks between training years. It’s a long journey, but as Renjun pointed out, they have a long time to replace to suitcases while Donghyuck needs some today.

They all plop down on the floor, folding shirts and pants and various articles of clothing that weren’t all too folded to begin with. It’s a nice time of bonding, sitting in a circle talking while filling up bags. Donghyuck places his laptop, his DS, and all of his charging cables in last. Once they zip the bags up they sit on the floor, staring back at the team as hard as they stare to begin with.

Donghyuck sighs, and drops his head onto Jisung’s shoulder, who jumps at the unexpected contact, “I need to put on real clothes, don’t I?”

Chenle snickers and Renjun whacks the back of his head. Donghyuck smiles, grabs the pants and shirt he left out and stands up to get changed. Chenle throws a pillow at his back and groans, but it’s just play, they all get changed in front of each other all the time.

Donghyuck turns back around and unzips one of the suitcases before shoving his balled up sweatpants into the side of them, ignoring Jeno’s affronted noise of protest. He turns and holds up Jaemin’s hoodie to him, but he pushes it back to him.

“What?” Donghyuck asks, shoving it harder, “Take it. It’s yours.”

“Have it,” Jaemin says, smiling, “to remember me.”

Donghyuck presses his lips together into a thin line, “I’m seeing you again, asshole.”

“I know you want it, so keep it.”

He does want it. He really does. So he looks down at it, sighs, and then slips it back over his head. Jaemin smiles up at him, warm and open, and Donghyuck is going to miss them.

It’s 6:40, and at this point Donghyuck realizes why they picked the time they did. Training on Sunday’s starts and ends late, people go directly from training to the cafeteria at 6:50. No one was going to be in the dorm at 7:00.

Donghyuck asks his friends if they’re going to eat, and they all wave him away, which is touching and concerning. The last few minutes are filled with promises to text and to call, that they’ll meet up as soon as Donghyuck’s schedule allows and that he better let them know what superhero life is like every night, including updates tonight. He spends the seconds winding down to the pick up with Renjun’s head in his lap and Jaemin’s arm across his shoulders. Everyone but Jaemin has misty eyes, but Donghyuck is okay with having the sadness in the room. It’s the last time he’ll have to face it.

The door finally sounds with a knock.

They all look up at the door, and he takes a deep breathe in before standing up. He looks down at all his friends, ignores Jisung furiously scrubbing his eyes and his own blurry vision. He grabs his bags.

“See you guys soon.”

And he steps out of the door before them emotion can take his composure. The men on the other side are unfamiliar but unintimidating.

“Mr. Lee?” one asks.

“Um,” he pauses, “Donghyuck is fine.”

The two men smile, and one nods with his head towards to the elevator, “Alright then, let’s be heading up.”

“Up?” Donghyuck asks as they start moving.

“Yes, you’ll be housed in a more secure area of the building for week while you train with your new team,” Donghyuck didn’t like how he phrased that, “Speaking of, can I please have your phone.”

Donghyuck freezes, “No.”

The man steps forward, “Please. It’s a safety precaution. The higher levels of he building aren’t meant to be shared. No one is allowed to have any smart devices or cameras above level 75.”

Donghyuck shakes his head, and the man sighs, “It’s just for the week. We can’t leave until I have it.”

He takes a deep breathe in and a lets it out fast. His phone slides out of his pocket easily, but he doesn’t know how to go without it. He’ll be without his friends and he already promised to update them constantly. They’ll freak if they only get radio silence for a whole week.

“I’ll need to run back and tell my friends something, though,” Donghyuck warns.

The man nods,”That’s fine, just be as quick as you can.”

Reluctantly, Donghyuck sets his old iPhone in the man’s hand, and then sprints back to his room, leaving his bags behind. He pounds on the door, and it’s a long span of time before the door opens again.

And oh, Donghyuck was wrong about Jaemin’s sadness being as bad as his tears. He wasn’t ready for the sight of his boyfriend with red eyes and tear marked cheeks, it send his own tears back up to his eyes and he steps forward into his space,

“Why are you crying?” he demands.

Jaemin wipes as his own face, looking at Donghyuck in confusion, “Why are you back?”

Donghyuck looks back at the room, and there are other tears as well. He won’t dwell on that, can’t dwell on that. “They’re taking my phone for the week. I won’t be able to talk to you for the week.”

“What?” Jisung croaks, and they all start migrating to the door.

“It’s a security issue, but I needed to let you know that you won’t hear from me for awhile,” Donghyuck says, stepping into the small space they’ve made in the room.

“Okay,” Jeno says, “Okay, that’s fine, are you okay with it?”

 _No, not at all_ , his voice breaks on his, “Yeah.”

Chenle dives forward and envelops him in a hug, and then everyone else follows. It takes all the self restraint Donghyuck has to not cry with them, and when they pull back it’s the hardest few steps Donghyuck ever takes.

“I love you guys,” Donghyuck says, and closes the door before they have the opportunity to say it back.

He’ll hear it again.

Donghyuck walks back to his escorts, and they have pity all over their features.

“Ready?” one asks, and he nods. That’s all he can do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When they step into the elevator, one of the men swipes a clearance card on the scanner beside the door, lighting up the levels of the building Donghyuck’s ID doesn’t reach. He figures they’ll be following him all the way. But the doors open on the 74th floor, and Donghyuck is confused when his escorts step out. The man who took his phone presses the button for the 77th floor, and Donghyuck stares up at them with wide eyes. The same man smiles, gives him a small wave.

“Good luck, kid.”

And the doors close again.

The elevator ascends again. Donghyuck doesn’t even know what he’s going up to. At this point, he doesn’t even believe he’s in the same reality as he was five minutes ago. It’s as if the elevator was a door to another dimension that Donghyuck stepped into unknowing. This leg of the trip is much shorter, and Donghyuck waits to know what world awaits him on the other side of this portal.

The doors slide open, and the answer is Team 127.

Donghyuck feels his eyes widen, his pulse race. He’s startled into a step back and that’s when the team turns to look at him from the couch they’re settled on. Strangely, they seem as nervous as he does, which simultaneously makes him feel much less embarrassed and much less at ease. The moment stretches out for a long second, and then Dongyuck steps into the room.

It doesn’t feel real. These are people he has idolized and, if he’s being honest, fangirled over on many occasions. The doors slide shut behind him and he’s standing there in his favorite jeans and his boyfriend’s ratty hoodie. Life is so weird.

“Um,” Donghyuck starts, not sure if he should introduce himself or wait for someone else to start.

Before he can worry about it, Taeyong ( _LEE TAEYONG_ , Donghyuck’s caveman mind screams) walks up and proffers his hand. They’re nearly the same height, which destroys Donghyuck’s sense of reality, and when he smiles it seems as generous as it is anxious.

“Hi, I’m Taeyong. Your name is Donghyuck, right?” and Donghyuck starts to ease into the atmosphere as he shakes 127’s leader’s hand.

He nods too fast, tries not to be embarrassed by it, “Yeah, I’m Donghyuck, It’s nice to meet you.”

Taeyong nods, “It’s nice to meet you too.”

From the corner of his eye, he notices Mrs. Park in the corner. Her familiar face does not ease his mind, but she’s an easy location to place his eyes when he doesn’t know where to look.

Out of his peripheral vision, Lee Mark is not eager to meet his eyes. Donghyuck wonders if he’s forgotten. His teacher grabs his attention again, rather quickly stepping forward and reaching for one of his bags.

“Donghyuck, it’s nice to see you,” she greets, “I’d like you to meet your team. We wanted you to use tonight to settle in, but they were insistent on meeting you as soon as possible.”

That surprises him. He didn’t think his arrival would matter so much to them. He was a simple replacement, a necessity to their function. It wasn’t like they knew him.

Doyoung stands up and he can feel his internal memory of Jeno lose its shit. Kim Doyoung is Jeno’s _idol_.

“It was important,” and Doyoung inclines his head to him, “It’s nice to meet you,” he reaches for Donghyuck’s other bag and his hand flies off it at an inappropriate speed to allow him access.

Mrs. Park’s eyebrows furrow, but she doesn’t say anything. Taeyong nods, Donghyuck meets his eyes and finds them warm, “Yeah, it was important that you got to come home with us and not a bunch of chauffeurs.”

His mind goes spiraling, because that is not what he was told. He was told that he was staying in secure property, not that he wouldn’t want to go to a home but he was escorted up and not down and why did he give up his phone if he was leaving, did he even go with the right people and why would he go to the top of the tower only to come back down-

“Donghyuck is staying in the training suites for the duration of the week, Taeyong,” Mrs. Park clarifies, “We don’t want to make him move all the way out until his placement is finalized.”

Until is placement is _finalized_?

“His placement is finalized,” Johnny states from the couch, his tone firm and, if Donghyuck were to guess, irritated, “Why can’t he come with us? There’s no one else up here, it’ll be awful.”

“Did they not tell you guys?” Donghyuck quietly wonders aloud, and immediately wishes he hadn’t.

“Oh my gosh, sorry. Was that your request?” Taeyong rushes out.

“No!”

“No, it was a company decision,” Mrs. Park affirms, “and it’s not up for question. He won’t be alone long, you’ll be spending the day together, it’s just the nights.”

“I’m not overly fond of this idea either,” Jaehyun declares from his place in the couch and _what the fuck is going on-_

“That’s not important,” Mrs. Park states, “You all should be leaving soon. Donghyuck here has had a long day and I want to give him plenty of time to settle him in and walk him through his schedule.”

“Surely we can stay for that,” Doyoung implores, but Mrs. Park shakes her head.

“Leave, boys, it’s not time for you. You’ll be back tomorrow morning.”

Slowly, grumbling, they push their way off the couches. As they pass, they smile at Donhyuck and some of them (namely Nakamoto Yuta) glare at Mrs. Park as they pass. Mark meets his eyes and pauses. He seems to deliberate something for a moment, which makes Donghyuck’s soar in hope, but then he smiles silently and keeps walking. That almost hurts, but for it to Donghyuck would have to admit that he had been anticipating anything.

The room is very quiet once they’re gone, and he is left in his suite alone.

“Come on, Donghyuck,” Mrs. Park beckons with her free hand, “I’ll show you around.”

Johnny was right, it is awful. They review the week’s schedule and his daily expectations in a relatively short amount of time, because Donghyuck has no energy for asking questions. The suite is relatively small, he guesses that floor 75 is the floor where the skyscraper begins to taper to it’s smaller tip. Mrs. Park leaves just after 8:30, and Donghyuck is so tired that he eats the food that was left for him, showers, and hops into his bed as soon as he can.

With all of the lights out and the windows looking out over the Neo City open, he feels disquieted. He turns on the TV to fill the space, but nothing can make a room empty of five breaths feel quite right. Donghyuck tosses and turns for who knows how long, searching for warmth in Jaemin’s hoodie and his too big bed that was for emptier than his twin 70 stories below.

Sleep comes eventually, but the night is already long by the time it does.

He hopes he’ll be a stronger person when he wakes up in the morning.


	2. We've Got Each Other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “But that’s why we grabbed you. We’re gonna be stronger, ready for this, I just know it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some apologies are in order:
> 
> 1) *this was an apolgy for being late, like i said, it never happened soooooo* 
> 
> 2) I have not proof read this even once so there's going to be at least one horrendous mistake, I just physically can not sit on this any longer, I promise I'll fix any errors later!!
> 
> Without further ado!!! Enjoy!!!

_Donghyuck was the last member of his orientation group that day._

_”Welcome to Super Management, new trainees," a voice boomed over the loudspeaker, “and welcome to your orientation day.”_

_Everyone in the large training room cheered, Donghyuck included. He watches their leader whoop and cheer, and got a vague sense of second hand embarrassment as the blue team beside them watches him with raised eyebrows._

_”Today, we’ll be doing some team bonding exercises through obstacle courses and various puzzle activities. Team leaders, start showing your groups to the course appointed to you yesterday. Good luck and have fun everyone!”_

_Mark? Mark. He’s pretty sure it’s Mark, turns around and smiles at all of them, “Come on guys, our’s is on the next floor.”_

_They all follow him to the elevator, and Donghyuck holds back amused giggles when their innocent looking leader shoves them in front of another waiting team. Mark smiles in the face of an irritated boy and his agitated group, and their own team starts laughing when the doors close._

_Mark turns around, his face falsely serious, “Now what I just did is rude, we expect more of you here during your training years. Do as I say, not as I do.”_

_The doors pop open again, and Mark leads them out into a completely different set up. They’re on a small viewing platform that circles something like an arena. There’s not many people up here yet, and Mark leads them down an empty set of stairs to an arched entrance of the ring. On the side, their neon green color flies._

_Mark, he thinks (Donghyuck is going to feel really bad if it isn’t Mark), turns around and smiles, “Want to do some introductions before we get started? I’m Mark, in case you forgot, I’m starting my fourth year here and I’m 19 years old. I lived in Canada when I was younger but moved to the Neo City about six years ago.”_

_“You’re in your fourth year? But you’re only a year older than me!” some kid who has been attached to another boy exclaimed, “Oh, and I’m Jaemin, by the way.”_

_The kid he’s attached to smiles awkwardly, but the hint of it is enough for Donghyuck to see that it’s probably spectacular in full form, “I’m Jeno, we grew up together.”_

_Donghyuck tries to fight down the jealousy of having a friend in the program when another kid cuts off his self pity._

_“I’m Renjun, I’m from China.”_

_“Oh no way!” this one’s blond, with noticeable and tragic roots, “I am too, I’m Chenle.”_

_Renjun shakes his hand, seemingly happy to have something in common, but even then he looks only a hair as happy as Chenle does._

_Donghyuck looks at the remaining kid, but he doesn’t seem all too up to talking yet. Donghyuck relates, but he’s willing to spare him for another moment, “I’m Donghyuck,” he announces, “I’m from the coast, and I’m eighteen as well.”_

_“Oh, me too,” says Renjun._

_Chenle hums, “I’m sixteen,” there’s a horrified gasp from Jaemin, “but I’m turning seventeen soon! I’m just a late bloomer.”_

_“I’m sixteen,” the kid states, and everyone eyes how tall he is in mild horror._

_“But you’re turning seventeen soon right?” Mark asks._

_He shakes his head, “No, I had my birthday already.”_

_Jaemin looks like he’s thinking of suicide and Renjun seems to be contemplating homicide. Donghyuck’s starting to like these people. He tries to meet the kid’s eyes, but his are trained on his feet. Regardless, he puts on a friendly smile and tries his best to be nice, “What’s your name, kid?”_

_He looks up, “Jisung.”_

_“Nice to meet you Jisungie.”_

_At that moment, the loudspeaker comes on again, “Trainees! Get to your starting positions! We’ll be starting in two minutes.”_

_The announcements crackle off, and their leader turns to them with a sparkle in his eyes, “Alright, so the goal is to get through your obstacle course the fastest as a team. I’m going to go up to the top of the ring and guide you through things, but most of the work falls on you guys. Don’t worry too much about it, you’re not being judged or anything, it’s just for fun.”_

_They all nod, and Mark pulls them in a circle, placing his hand in the middle. Donghyuck is laughing in embarrassment and happiness as he places his hand on top._

_“One, two, three!” Mark calls, “Go team!”_

_“Go team!” they respond through laughter._

_Mark gives them a thumbs up, then takes a bounding jump before catching the side of the wall. He pulls himself up, and Donghyuck had almost forgotten they were super._

_He turns back to the team he’s just been given, “We’re gonna win, right?”_

_They all nod, and Donghyuck finds twin looks of determination in all of their eyes. He doesn’t know these people yet, but he can feel his soul calling out like it’s found the pieces of it’s personal puzzle._

_“Of course,” the kid named Renjun affirms, and Chenle nods from where he’s tucked under his arm._

_“We’re gonna kick ass.”_

_Jaemin nods at him, slings an arm around a pliant Jeno and another over a stiff Jisung, “What a dumb question to ask when we’ve got the fucking dream team right here.”_

 

 

 

 

 

 

Donghyuck wakes up to insistent tapping on his window. Which doesn’t make much sense, because last he remembered he was on the seventy seventh floor.

He stirs, rubs his eyes and turns over. The tapping continues, and Donghyuck may not be awake enough to be worried, but he sure is awake enough to be annoyed. He doesn’t know when sleep finally took him last night, but it sure as hell wasn’t early enough for this.

He turns towards the window and squints. The sun is rising, not quite day yet but noticeably not night anymore. Outside of his window, Seo Johnny hovers. He waves, and Donghyuck swears he’s in a fever dream. Swears this isn’t real. The superhero beckons to him, and Donghyuck turns back over.

Donghyuck thinks he hears the sound of laughter muffled by glass. The tapping starts up again, except it’s a bit more like banging now.

Donghyuck sits up straight and swings out of his bed. His floor is hardwood, and he shudders at the unpleasant sensation of cold that touches his feet. He marches over to the window reluctantly, blinking sleep from his eyes and finally peering up at Seo Johnny.

He holds up his phone, and it takes a Donghyuck a moment to realize that the notes app is open. He squints closer, reading the small text distorted through the glass.

 _Can we come up?_ it asks.

Donghyuck stares at him, confused, and Johnny grins unashamed. He pulls his phone back and types something before turning it back to Donghyuck.

_Can we come up? Please?_

His hands come up and rub his eyes before he’s even aware of it. Without thinking much, he turns on his heels and pulls the alarm clock from his bed side table. Roughly, he leads it over to the window, shoving the harsh red of the digital face into Johnny’s face. It reads 7:08. They were meant to arrive for training at _9:00._

Johnny’s face morphs from friendliness to shame into an expression of sheepish amusement, “Sorry,” he mouths, not looking sorry at all.

Donghyuck looks at him, and slowly drop the alarm clock down to his side. _Damnit,_ he still feels obligation to make a good impression. To not be too hard on the people he’s found himself with. He’s sure they’re not entirely happy he’s joining either.

He sighs, nods, and it’s kind of endearing how Johnny’s face lights up so quick. He holds up a finger to Donghyuck, the universal sign to wait up, and then starts hovering down the building.

Holy shit, he was seventy seven stories up.

Donghyuck trudges out of the bedroom and out into the empty living space. He fiddles with the coffee machine for a minute, it takes him a while to find the coffee and filters in the huge kitchen, and starts brewing a pot while he waits. Are they expecting breakfast? Should he make breakfast? Can he cook?

Eventually, Donghyuck decides to just lay himself out on the counter; lower half in the chair, upper half splayed on the marble. His hood sits over his head and frames his face. Like this, he might just fall asleep again.

Then the elevator opens.

Reluctantly, he sits up and spins around in his bar chair. He squints at their entrance, pushing the hood out of his eyes to see them come in. There’s only four of them, but it’s early and, to be honest, he’s not sure why there is anyone here at all.

“Good morning, Donghyuck-ah,” Taeyong croons from the door, stepping through with two hands full of tote bags.

“Good morning?” Donghyuck calls back, sleepy and confused.

They make their way over to him in the kitchen. Taeyong smiles at him as he passes, setting his bags down beside the stovetop before he begins digging around in the cabinets.

Jaehyun sits on the seat to the left of him, Johnny to his right with a coffee in hand. Donghyuck has the vague sense of being surrounded, and then Kim Jungwoo places a twenty ounce coffee in front of him. Donghyuck looks up quickly and Jungwoo nods at him. He puts his hands around it’s paper exterior and finds it warm, takes a sip and finds it good. Like, really fucking good.

“Thank you,” Donghyuck croaks out, and he coughs to clear the sleep from his throat, “Thank you, Jungwoo.”

He looks back up at the other man, and smiles at his appearance. Jungwoo has never struck him as the most serious member of Team 127, and that impression comes back to him with the way Jungwoo’s blond hair sticks out every which way from the neon green sweatband he’s pushed onto his head. However, as loud as his impression is, his smile is as soft as is his voice.

Jungwoo gestures to the coffee, “I got you a latte, I figured that was a safe bet, but is there something you’d prefer next time?”

Before he can answer, Johnny leans into his space and Donghyuck retreats slightly on reflex, “The Americanos from this place are also really good, if you want someone else’s opinion.”

From his left, Jaehyun gags, and that makes Donghyuck smile despite the hit of sadness that comes to him then. Americano is Jaemin’s order. He looks back up at Johnny and forces a layer of optimism on. It’s also this new friend’s order, it’s just coffee.

“I’m okay with a latte, Jungwoo, but you don’t have to get me anything if it’s too much trouble.”

Jungwoo waves him off, and Jaehyun pipes up, “We would stop by there anyway, we all enjoy having caffeine in the morning.”

Donghyuck cocks his head. He doesn’t want to call him out on a lie but his mouth has always worked lightyears faster than his brain, “Then where’s yours Jaehyun?”

Taeyong snorts and Johnny buts in to answer before Jaehyun can, “You see, Jaehyun here always underestimates the amount of coffee he really wants and got a small. But it’s okay because he _totally_ didn’t whine about it the whole trip up here, not at-“

And Jaehyun reaches around Donghyuck to smack Johnny on the shoulder. Donghyuck leans forward quickly to avoid being hit, the counter digging into his chest as he ducks. He hears more squabbling as he looks over his shoulder and he starts laughing when he sees the over exaggerated hurt on Johnny’s face.

“I’m sorry,” Taeyong cuts in, “I would say they’re not always like this, but I don’t think we should start lying to each other so soon.”

Donghyuck laughs again, “It’s okay, I’m used to play fighting and stuff.”

Taeyong sighs, “Well, I truly hope you weren’t planning on escaping it, because I don’t think some of us,” he glances at Johnny, “ever really got past being eighteen.”

Jaehyun snickers, and Johnny leans across the table to pout at Taeyong, “How could you say something like that? I’ve been the picture of maturity since day one, Taeyong.”

With a shove to his forehead, Taeyong sends Johnny back into his seat. He turns to Donghyuck, smiling again, “So how do you feel about omelets? I’ve got the supplies here for that but we can probably swing something else if you aren’t in the mood for it.”

Donghyuck’s eyes widen. _Oh_ , he thinks, _he’s cooking_.

“Um,” Donghyuck states eloquently, “that would be great, thank you so much.”

“Don’t worry about it, what do you want me to put in it? I got mushrooms, tomatoes spinach, um, peppers-“

Johnny smiles, “Taeyong.”

“Sorry, yeah, anyways, I’ve got just about everything.”

Donghyuck feels warm in his chest, he responds, “However you would make it, there’s nothing I don’t like.”

Taeyong nods and smiles, starts chopping things up and cracking eggs. Jungwoo picks up a knife as well, and Taeyong shoves a few vegetable over to his side.

“Thank you,” Donghyuck says again, genuinely grateful. It’s nice to have a good meal in the morning and he’s touched they even thought of him and his empty kitchen. (Bare of all but a box of cereal, some crackers, and milk. Mrs. Park told him they’d bring him up some more food today, but he was silently dreading breakfast.)

“It’s not a problem,” Taeyong waves him away, “I cook for us anyways, it’s not a big deal.”

“Speaking of, how are late risers getting fed?” Jaehyun asks with a cheeky smile.

Taeyong hums, “I am full of confidence someone will be able to make breakfast.”

“Full of confidence?”

A pause, “I am full of hope,” Jaehyun laughs, “that someone will be able to cook breakfast today. And if they can’t, it’s their fault for being physically unable to wakeup at a decent time.”

Donghyuck wants to joke that this isn’t a decent time of morning, but he doesn’t quite feel safe enough yet. Instead, he simply takes another sip of his coffee and rests his head on his hands. Around him, his new team talks softly about things he doesn’t listen to. He lets himself tune out, slowly sink into his thoughts as the white noise surrounds him. Far below him his team is going to be waking up soon, at the absolute last minute they can to get to morning strengthening at 8:30. If he lets himself drift enough, he can hear the echoes of Renjun whining and Jisung yawning in his ears. They would appreciate something like this, a breakfast like this. He thinks about how they’re going to walk into the cafeteria today without him for the first time since training started. How they’re going to have to face the questions and the confusion from everyone and fend it off on their own. Donghyuck had asked them to tell everyone that he had family business, that he was just away for awhile. It wasn’t unheard of, but he figures he was too suspicious before leaving for it to be entirely believable. It doesn’t matter. It just doesn’t sit right with him, the idea of people knowing yet, of them being able to accept it and move on before Donghyuck can.

He’s called back from his thoughts as Taeyong places a plate and utensils in front of him. The omelet is stuffed, and it smells delicious. Donghyuck blinks a few times to wake himself up, then looks up at the person who made it.

“Thank you, Taeyong,” he says honestly, and smiles when Taeyong looks genuinely pleased.

Donghyuck cuts into it, putting a huge slice onto his fork and shoving it into his mouth. He thinks he hears Jaehyun snickering from beside him, but he does’t pay attention once his mouth closes around the food, because it’s the best food he’s had since the last time his mom cooked for him.

It causes another small wave of sadness, but as he looks at Taeyong smacking Jungwoo’s hand away from the pan and Johnny and Jaehyun conversing lowly in the quiet morning, he forces another layer of optimism on. Sure, he doesn’t get to have home cooking from her anymore and he never will again, but on the bright side; well on the bright side he has this now, and he’s going to have it for as long as they’ll have him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taeyong leads them down a floor to the training area, and it becomes a bit more clear to Donghyuck, as he steps into the room, that perhaps there is a good reason he lost his phone on the way up here.

It’s a dark and luxurious space, marked by an absence of any definitive source of white light, black furniture, as well as the futuristic technology that sets the room alight in a blue glow. He wonders what sort of mirrored technology they have to make it appear as though it has windows from the outside. His eyes follows the blue light to the wide computer screens and humongous wires that make laps around the room and genesis inside a small enclosed glass space in the center. He looks back to the exterior, and that’s when he sees what interests him the most. Built into the walls that lack computers are floor to ceiling storage shelves, lined with what seems to him like hard drives. He squints at the labels that sit on the top of every shelf, _TVXQ, Red Velvet, F(X), EXO, Girls’ Generation, 127,_ and more.

“Donghyuck!” someone calls happily.

He snaps out of his focus in time to recognize Nakamoto Yuta throwing an arm over his shoulder along with slightly too much of his weight. Donghyuck fights valiantly to not fall over and ends up taking a fumbling few steps under his weight. Once he has his balance beneath him, he looks up at Yuta and finds him smiling widely. It’s large and exuberant, so much so Donghyuck figures it must be fake, but he does his best to smile back.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get to say it yesterday,” Yuta’s face softens, and it surprises Donghyuck a little, “but it’s nice to meet you, and it’s nice to have you on the team. I’m really excited to get to know you.”

Donghyuck feels his smile get smaller, overwhelmed and a little stock still, “Thank you, that means a lot,” he confesses.

Yuta smiles fully again, and turns back to the team, and Donghyuck follows suit. He gestures to the three other people who didn’t come up in the morning , “I know you met the early risers, and also Doyoung yesterday, but this is Taeil and Mark. We all are incapable of getting up as early as Taeyong insists, but I hope you know that we’re all still very excited to have you here.”

Taeil waves his hands in a gesture of playful excitement, and that makes Donghyuck smile. His eyes turn to Mark, who gives him a smile that Donghyuck would swear speaks of familiarity. He’s about to do it, about to unleash a, “We’ve met before, right?” but he’s cut off before he has the chance.

“Good morning, 127,” a voice only slightly familiar calls and it takes Donghyuck a long moment to realize 127 now includes him too.

He looks across the room to where BoA leans against a console with a warm smile on her face. Donghyuck smiles, it’s nice to be able to see her again.

“Hello, Boah,” Taeyong says and he smiles while gesturing to Donghyuck, “This is our new team mate, Donghyuck.”

Boah (Can he call her that? Is that too familiar?) waves to Donghyuck, “We’ve met. I’m excited to be working with him this week.”

Donghyuck stays silent, but remains confused. Johnny beckons him over, “Come here, come see what we’re going to be doing.”

Donghyuck walks over along with the rest of the team. He’s gently ushered to the front of them, next to Boah and the screen. She smiles gently at him, and in the shoes she has on today she’s shorter than him. Aren’t all superheroes supposed to be six feet tall? She touches the wide monitor and it blinks awake. On the screen is an image of someone’s feet. He’s not any more clear on the situation.

“This is footage from one of your team’s missions,” Boah explains, “We have special cameras built into every team’s suits for both accountability and rebuilding the scenes they encounter with this technology.”

“Rebuilding scenes?” Donghyuck asks, “Is this a VR space?”

Boah hums, tilts her head quickly in a gesture of quasi agreement, “In a way, our system is a bit more intricate than that, much more immersive. We use it to recreate crime scenes and moments of interest because we’re aware that not every detail can be noticed in high stress moments. It can only see as far as our heroes explore, but it’s led us to discovering key clues and evidence in a lot of cases.”

Taeyong adds, “It’s how we caught the guy distributing the mind control drug so fast last year.”

Donghyuck nods, that would make sense. That panic was brutal yet short lived, people rising up and attacking their loved ones with cloudy eyes for a week straight until Team 127’s very public face off with them in mid July.

“We’ll be putting you in various scenarios that have been encountered with this technology,” Boah finishes, “You won’t be affecting the scenes that happen, this is more so an exercise in decision making and allowing you to get a taste of superhero life before you dive into it next week.”

Holy shit, next week. Donghyuck forces himself to laugh despite the nerves in his throat, “That’s not the most comforting way of putting it.”

Someone sidles up next to him, and he turns to see Yuta smiling down at him again, and he does his best to relax under his friendly eyes.

“Don’t worry about it, Boah is just being dramatic. The hardest part of being a superhero is the talk show hosts.”

Donghyuck smiles back honestly, “Thanks Yuta.”

“Aw, thats so cute,” and Yuta is hugging him and his face must betray his surprise, because Johnny starts laughing at him.

“Don’t kill him too soon, Yuta, we just got him.”

Yuta releases him, but keeps his arm around his shoulder. Donghyuck looks back to Boah, who rolls her eyes affectionately.

“Anyways, we’ll be working through a few of these this week in between when you’re working on technical stuff with the team.”

Donghyuck nods, he supposes it will be a nice break from whatever other physical challenges they want to put him through in order to prove himself.

Boah gestures to a small pile of synthetic fabric beside her, “Then take this and go change in the room behind the door back there. It’s the suit we use for immersion, we’re getting one fitted to you but it won’t be in until tomorrow. For now, this should work. So come out when you’re ready and we’ll get started right away.”

So he grabs it and turns around to come face to face with Team 127 crowding in close. There’s a long pause before Mark mutters an, “Oh shit,” and they start moving out of the way.

Donghyuck laughs as he walks by them and into the small changing room. He unfurls the fabric and finds a dull grey body suit and a set of gloves that fall onto the floor. He leans in closer, inspects what appear to be a collection of seams but are actually series of wires woven into the light fabric. After a long pause, Donghyuck makes the executive decision to not think about it and just slip into the suit.

When he walks out, people are relaxing on the side of the room and Taeyong and Johnny are still talking to Boah. When she sees him come out, she steps away and smiles kindly while looking his suit up and down, “How does it fit?”

A little looses in areas, he had to roll the ends of the sleeves and the pant legs. He nods, shrugs, “Just fine.”  
She nods, and meets his eyes with a smile before gesturing to the glass space in the middle of the room, “Alright, take this,” she drops a small earpiece into the palm of his hand, “and why don’t you step into the VR space and we’ll get started.”

Oh, it’s the VR space. He makes his way over to the glass compartment and he slides in while placing in his in ear. His breath gets caught as the door closes behind him and he realizes all the glass he saw is a one way mirror, that he can’t see out while they can still see in. He takes a few steps into the middle of the space, caught off guard by how eerily silent it is. Above him, a contraption that all the wires goes to sits. It’s covered in lenses and soft blue light. Boah crackles to life in his ear.

“Alright, Donghyuck, this first simulation is going to be a practice in decision making. Jaehyun picked this one for you. It’s not too intense, but it should help you get the format of what we’re trying to do and help you get used to maneuvering the scenes.”

He nods, but then cocks his head in confusion, “Wait, shouldn’t I have glasses or something?”

There’s no response but the whirl of the machine coming on above him and the world of mirrors falling away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around Donghyuck, a rooftop comes into focus. He looks around in awe, his eyes in shock that this whole scene somehow isn’t real. Before he can fully appreciate it, the floor jerks beneath him, and he’s forced to walk forward. He walks until his feet are at the edge of the building, and in his earpiece he hears Jaehyun’s voice, distorted in a way that makes it clear it comes from the memory and not the man in the room outside of his.

“Johnny? What’s the status?” Donghyuck looks around for a potential source, but when he looks around he realizes that he must _be_ Jaehyun.

In his ear, Johnny replies, “We’re coming your way, Jae, they’re moving fast so we might have to wait ‘till I can corral them with something.”

Jaehyun hums, “We’re a long way from a water source, can Yuta do anything?”

“Too fast,” Johnny replies, “We’re coming up on your location from the South, be ready to join the chase, I think they’re also too fast for you to help yet.”

Donghyuck turns and looks to where Johnny told him he was coming from and sees three members of 127 gliding through the air with the propulsion of their tether devices. He looks down, sees a brigade of cars barreling though traffic, bobbing and weaving at an unsafe pace as civilian drivers pull off the road as fast as they can. It’s so weird, Donghyuck remembers this scene. It was on the news last month. The simulation pauses.

Boah asks in his year, “What are you going to do?”

“Will this affect the simulation?” Donghyuck asks, curious if this operates more like a game than he originally thought.

“Nope,” Boah pops the last syllable, “think of this as a thought exercise. If you were Jaehyun, what would you do?”

Donghyuck knows how this ends, even if he isn’t quite sure how it got there. He wonders if this is cheating in some way as he answers, “I want to intercept them, I move to the streets.”

Boah’s voice crackles across, “Ignoring your team?”

“I’ll join, I promise,” Donghyuck says with a smile, “but I want to see of I can still help somehow.”

Boah doesn’t respond, but the image starts moving again and Jaehyun jumps from the roof. Donghyuck’s heart drops as the scenery beneath his feet falls away, but he supposes the VR room can’t quit mimic the sensation of falling because he feels otherwise still. Jaehyun glides down using the hover technology in his palms and feet, a tether he unleashes winding him down fast. He lands on the ground and the cars are so close that they are deafening in Donghyuck’s earpiece.

It pauses again, “Alright, Donghyuck, what are you doing now?”

At this point, it’s definitely cheating for Donghyuck to know, “I’m Jaehyun, right? I place a forcefield in the middle of the road. Hopefully they’ll hit it.”

Boah chuckles, so he figures that she knows that he’s aware of how it went down. He smiles mischievously, the simulation twitching back to life.

In the middle of the road, a wide sphere of crackling red energy appears, and the cars slam on their breaks and swerve in the vain hope of stopping before they meet it in the most unfortunate way. One crash after another, they interlock bumpers and pile up. The first car hits the forcefield and the electricity crawls across it’s hood that has dented as if it hit a wall. They all stop, and Jaehyun drops the forcefield.

Johnny comes down from the sky and lands beside him. He opens his mouth to say something to Jaehyun with a look of concern on his face, but reality fades back to mirrors before Donghyuck gets the chance to find out what.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_They win, because of course they do._

_Donghyuck ends up catching Jeno as he falls over the last wall, both of them tumbling to the ground as their time is announced over the loudspeaker. There’s cheering, hugging (reluctantly, on Jisung’s part) and they sweep Mark up into it as soon as he’s on the ground. Like a group of obnoxious children, they scream and laugh while smiling. It’s infectious, and all of the nerves Donghyuck had from the morning are gone, lost in the maze they left behind._

_“Guys, guys!” Mark tries his best to speak over them, but it’s a fairly moot effort, “Let me go, let me get you guys water!”_

_They’re all laughing as they release him, Jaemin hanging on a bit longer than everyone else. Mark stumbles away with an embarrassed smile on his face, which leaves them all alone in their sweaty elation. Together, they talk about the course, laugh at their mistakes, talk like friends. By the time Mark returns with an armful of Super Management branded water bottles even Jisung is smiling with everyone, seemingly not as tense as he was before the course._

_Donghyuck gratefully snatches a water bottle from Mark before he can hand him one, and it’s then that another time is announced. As he thinks back on their own time, he feels a smug smile racing across his face._

_Three minute time difference._

_They don’t have to wait so long for the next time to get announced. From then on, there’s a fairly steady trickle of teams finishing. Mark reminds them that it’s not really a competition, but the looks on everyone’s faces make it apparent that they know they won._

_There’s more fluff that takes place on the training room floors, Mark leads them on a tour around the training facilities, and then they head to the large cafeteria that sits across the span of one floor of Super Management._

_“Do you want to eat with us, Mark?” Chenle asks._

_Mark seems shocked, but nods anyway, “Um, sure. I’d be honored.”_

_Renjun snorts, mutters, “Honored,” under his breath, and Donghyuck turns to tease Mark._

_“Have we already replaced your friends Mark, or did you not have any to begin with?”_

_Mark smiles, but it’s a bit down trodden and solemn. Guilt hits Donghyuck fast, faster than Mark can respond with an ambiguous, “I do, they just all graduated from the program last year.”_

_“They left you all alone?” Jaemin asks in a tone of voice that conveys mocking but with a softness to his face that makes him seem kind._

_Mark shrugs, and Jaemin coos, “Awe don’t worry Mark, I promise we’ll be here to annoy you until your final days.”_

_Mark laughs and smiles, but even then something seems a bit off about it that Donghyuck can’t place. He’s not ever been great at reading people, but Mark seems to have the sirens going off all around him that speaks of someone that has something weighing them down. He figures that he really is going to end up befriending these kids, so maybe this is the part where he takes the first step._

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They put Donghyuck through a few more simulations before the day goes out. For one he’s Johnny, bounding across rooftops with Mark and Jaehyun. In the next he’s Taeyong, sparring with Doyoung (“I promise, Donghyuck-ah, me and Taeyong squabbling will be one of the most applicable things to your upcoming career,” Doyoung swore across his earpiece.), and this is the one where he learned that the suit he’s in is _quite_ good at simulating different forces in the VR environment. The last one is from Yuta, and it’s the first one to get him as genuinely harrowing, and it’s his first decision that can be seen as a mistake. He gets forced into a corner with Johnny and Taeil, and when asked what to do with Yuta’s power over a range of flying sparks that soar through the air at will, Donghyuck asked to expand them as far as possible to take everyone down. Yuta had put them away, protecting his teammates from his power’s range by going fist to fist with the endless robots that had cornered them.

When he steps out of the glass room, he’s surprised to see Taeil sitting on the floor next to Boah’s setup. He smiles at him, a flat box in his lap, and Donghyuck cocks his head in confusion. All of Team 127 had left about an hour ago to attend a press conference for Friday’s attack, he assumed none of them would be returning.

“Good job today Donghyuck, why don’t you go get changed and we can debrief a little,” Boah says, and Donghyuck nods before stepping away.

Honestly, Donghyuck is exhausted. He steps back into his clothes and comes out to hand Boah back his suit, trying his best not to slouch and give away what seemed to be a simple task being so tiring. She smiles down at him and tucks the fabric under her arm.

“I know I already said it, but you did well today,” Boah tells him, “Here, let’s sit down. Taeil brought us food.”

She folds her legs and lowers herself to the floor. Donghyuck follows suit, trying not to eye the nearby couches in confusion. Taeil opens the box, and inside there’s a few slice of aromatic pizza.

Taeil holds out the box to him, “Here, you get first choice Donghyuck-ah.”

He looks up at Taeil, looking for more reassurance in his eyes, and takes the smallest slice once he finds it. Taeil holds the box to Boah next, and he takes the last slice himself. Donghyuck takes a huge bite out of it, and Taeil puts the box down before smiling at Donghyuck again.

“How do you think today went?”

Donghyuck stops chewing, his cheeks bulging from the food inside, and they all start laughing at his poor timing. He desperately is trying to contain it and swallow, he doesn’t want to choke in front of these two seniors.

“Okay, okay, lets calm down,” Boah says, and there’s a second of calm before they snicker again.

Donghyuck finally swallows, and he nods before looking up at at Taeil, “It was okay, I think I get the technology now. I feel bad for the- I don’t know if you saw it, the last simulation? I made a bad choice.”

Boah shakes her head and Taeil frowns, “It wasn’t bad, you did what you felt was best.”

“It wasn’t that fair of a question, in your defense,” Boah adds on, “You don’t have Yuta’s specialty, you don’t know how it works specifically. Don’t beat yourself up over it.”

Donghyuck sighs, “I don’t have any specialty at all.”

It’s been weighing on his mind more and more. In every simulation, the solution always comes at the hands of the specialty of who he’s become a voyeur of. Jaehyun’s forcefields, Doyoung’s self replication, Johnny’s control of water, Yuta’s sparks. He lacks any of it.

Taeil cocks his head, “Have you seen any signs of it coming in?”

Donghyuck shakes his head, and Boah pats him lightly on the shoulder, “Don’t worry about that, you were chosen knowing that and without the expectation that you would have one before you debuted.”

“It’s a liability, isn’t it?” Donghyuck insisted, “There’s a real chance it will end up being totally useless, and then I’ll have to deal with being the superhero with the shitty specialty.”

“Sometimes shitty specialties are the best ones,” Boah offers.

“Name one hero who has an underwhelming superpower,” Donghyuck quips back.

Taeil shrugs, “People don’t think mine is especially notable.”

Donghyuck pauses. He didn’t really think about that. Moon Taeil perhaps has one of the least flashy powers out of all the debuted heroes he knows: growing and shrinking objects.

“I mean, it has its practically uses,” Donghyuck mumbles, “It’s not as though you’ve never needed to use it before.”

Taeil’s smile is small, Donghyuck takes another bite, “Yeah, but I don’t think anyone considers it especially useful. I’m not saying I’m dead weight or anything, just that perceptions aren’t always the most important thing. From what I’ve heard, you can hold your own without a specialty, so I wouldn’t even worry about that yet. Anything is a plus.”

Donghyuck sighs, “But you don’t know that I can hold my own yet.”

“He can hold his own,” Boah interjects, and a flattered smile unwillingly climbs onto his face.

“See, he knows it’s true,” Taeil says.

“That’s not what that means,” Donghyuck argues, still smiling.

“Gosh what an ego,” Boah jokes, “with one that inflated, he’s not even going to need the suit for flight training tomorrow.”

Oh _forget_ his lack of specialty, “ _Flight training?_ ” Donghyuck exclaims.

Boah and Taeil laugh at him, but it’s good natured as opposed to the bleak tone of the last time Boah got the chance to, “Well, you’ve got to keep up with everyone else somehow.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Donghyuck wakes up the next morning, it’s to the smell of pancakes. Which is just objectively confusing, because he doesn’t recall someone knocking on his window at the break of dawn today to ask his permission to cook in his kitchen. He pulls himself out of bed slowly, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. It’s nearly 8:00, and Donghyuck at the very least appreciates the opportunity to sleep in to what he feels is a much more reasonable time than an hour previous to it.

He changes at a pace that is quick for having just woken up, and steps out into his living space. It’s the same group of people as yesterday, but this time Jaehyun and Jungwoo are already digging into a short stack. Taeyong is piling pancakes onto a wide pan that’s serving as a dish in front of him while Johnny lays draped over Jaehyun’s back. He opens his mouth, and Jaehyun sticks a piece inside without so much as looking at him.

Taeyong looks up, and his face lights when his eyes meet Donghyuck’s, “Oh, good morning! Do you want some pancakes? I hope you don’t mind us breaking in.”

Donghyuck’s shoulders shake with sleepy laughter. He doesn’t mind, but it’s funny that they gave so little thought to asking after only one day.

“Yeah, that sounds great,” and it doesn’t feel forced this time.

He flops down beside Jungwoo, who slides him a large coffee and smiles with warm eyes. Donghyuck smiles back, and today it feels a bit more real.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The flight suits are kept on the floors above him, and Donghyuck can’t contain the way he vibrates with excitement as the five of them ascend the building.

“I promise, Donghyuck, it’s not going to be quite as glamorous as it seems. I ended up upside down in the air more times than I can count,” Johnny lectures.

“I think it’s a lot of fun, actually,” Jungwoo counters, leaning against the wall.

“I’m just excited to see how much he’s going to flail around,” Jaehyun says, voice mild but with a mischievous expression that makes Donghyuck feel marginally threatened.

But then the door opens into a training room with a format Donghyuck is much more familiar with. Today, they arrive first, and he’s mostly surprised that there doesn’t seem to be an instructor of any kind today.

“Do I know who’s teaching me?” Donghyuck turns around the room and asks, then gets confused when Taeyong nods, “Who?”

“We are,” he answers.

He stops looking around the space and meets Taeyong’s eyes with pleased confusion, “Just you?” he nods, “Why?”

Taeyong shrugs, “No one knows better than us. We learned from Girls’ Generation because they had been using them for nine years at the time, and it’s too expensive to manufacture more than nine at a time, really. So now we’ll teach you, because we’re the only active people using them.”

It was anxiety inducing enough to have them watching as he went through simulations on his own, the idea of working with them alone all day puts him back in the same pit of anxiety he had found himself in yesterday. He hopes this cruel cycle of doubt and worry stops before this week ends.

“I promise, we’ll only be a fraction as awful at teaching as you think we’ll be,” Johnny jokes in place of Donghyuck’s sudden silence.

Donghyuck smiles on reflex, pushing it down because that’s the only way he knows to move past it, “What are you talking about? I would never ever doubt you,” and his voice is purposefully saccharine, but then he drops it, asking guiltily, “Is it really too expensive to make more?”

“Yeah,” Johnny shrugs, “that’s why the main defense team is the only one who has it. But, to be honest, it wasn’t too much to make one more,” and he winks conspiratorially at Donghyuck.

The elevator opens again, and Donghyuck watches as the rest of his team spills out into the space.

“So!” Yuta calls out, “Who’s excited to fly?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jeno’s specialty of choice had always been flying, that’s something he remembers well. He’s never been good at remembering things like that, but Jeno’s had always stuck out to him amongst the others. He remembers that Jaemin’s first choice was fire bending like Hyoyeon, but that stuck with him purely because the idea of him having that power is terrifying. Jisung had only ever wanted the ability to speak to animals, and Donghyuck still thinks it’s hilarious that he was disappointed the first time he leapt across the room in a long second. He can’t remember Renjun’s at all, doesn’t even know if they talked about it. If you a held a gun to Donghyuck’s head, he would probably remember the finer details of Chenle’s choice (it was something like mind control, Donghyuck swears) but otherwise the information has completely vacated him. But Jeno, Donghyuck remembers it for the reasons he gave out after.

“Wouldn’t it be so cool,” Jeno had said, “to be the first person in the world who could truly fly?”

And he’s right, because specialties are never unique. There’s three people with impervious skin amongst debuted superheroes alone. Jisung shares his specialty with Taeyong, a fact Donghyuck finds funny when it isn’t making him sad. Flying, on the other hand, is for some reason unheard of. Super Management’s engineers have mastered the hover technology, given them grappling hooks to move, but it isn’t quite the same feat. There has never been a super with the power to fly. It’s a phenomenon.

One Donghyuck wishes he could summon up now, as he sends himself into the roof at a high velocity for the third time this hour.

“Think about lifting slow! Try to, I don’t know, resist yourself on the way up!”

As Donghyuck lays spread eagle on the roof, he wishes he could joke around with Taeyong that he perhaps is not so fantastic of a teacher, but he gets the feeling that he’ll take it slightly more seriously than Donghyuck intends.

“No offense, but that doesn’t really make any sense,” Donghyuck calls down.

Taeil hovers up to him, and helps him get righted in the air once more. Once Donghyuck feels stable, he backs away and to both of their surprise, Donghyuck manages to stay hovering still.

Taeil’s eyes widen and his face stretches into a happy smile, “Awesome, this is great!”

Donghyuck feels himself start to reflect his smile, but then his hand twitches out of place and he’s spiraling around the room again. He groans as his body turns and turns while the nausea of dizziness becomes even more persistent. It’s Taeil who grabs him again, and lowers him to the floor slowly.

“I think it’s time for a break,” he says in his soft tone of voice, his hands firm on his shoulders.

Donghyuck looks over at everyone else, and is surprised to see them only looking proud, not even the slightest bit frustrated. He then, also, feels immediately guilty for expecting the worst out of them.

“Good job, Donghyuck-ah!” Jungwoo calls.

Beside him, Mark gives him a thumbs up and the most awkward smile Donghyuck has ever seen on a person. It makes him smile back. It feels like progress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_Mark helps them all move into their dorm in the afternoon. They all end up occupying one of the rooms together. It’s a small one, so all six of them are the only people inside. Chenle and Renjun both came with two suitcases, Jaemin and Jeno split a few boxes on the ground, and Jisung came with a duffel and a bag full of things he might need to live alone all wrapped in their store packaging, Donghyuck has his backpack. As a united force, it doesn’t take them too long. The only thing that becomes lengthy is dramatically trying to get Jisung’s too small sheets onto his bed. At the end of the night, they eat dinner together, and get ready to formally move into the new life they had been oriented into._

_Donghyuck catches Mark on his way out, “Hey, I’m sorry if this is a bit weird, but you seem kind of down to me and I know you said you don’t have any friends left here but,” he steels himself, convincing himself that this is someone who’s going to be a friend so this is a right thing to do, “I can be a friend, if you need to talk?”_

_Mark stares at him for a second, “Are you being serious about that?”_

_He doesn’t have the humor about him that Donghyuck has become accustomed to over the course of the day, and it’s a little intimidating to be honest. Still, Donghyuck replies, “Yeah, of course. We’re friends now, right? And that’s what friends are for.”_

_Mark looks around the crowded lobby space that will serve as Donghyuck’s year’s living room. He nods his head towards the elevator, and Donghyuck follows when he starts walking. Mark leads them down a few floors and through the stairs to a landing that circles around the lobby, the same landing that would facilitate another unknowing change in Donghyuck’s life two years later. It’s empty, but the lobby below is still bustling with new students and parents. Mark sits down, and Donghyuck sits beside him._

_For a long few minutes, they sit in silence as the lobby bustles and the sun sets over their heads, dying the murals on the walls a deep orange. Mark is leaning back with his eyes closed, seemingly perfectly content in the silence. Donghyuck is impatient, and is about to ask again about what’s weighing him down, but then Mark is answering without a cue._

_“It’s just hard, y’know,” Mark starts, “to have the people you’re closest to not around, especially on days like today.”_

_“Days like today?” Donghyuck asks._

_“Stressful days,” Mark clarifies._

_“Have we been stressing you out?” Donghyuck teases, but he hopes that his facial expression coveys that he’s asking genuinely._

_Mark shakes his head though, and Donghyuck feels relieved, “No it’s,” he pauses, “it’s more than that. I’m actually really glad I got you lot today. I was kind of dreading this because of, just everything, but I really enjoyed having you all around. I feel like I made some good friends today.”_

_His words get more sad the longer he talks, and he ends his sentence staring out into the lobby._

_“I’m glad we weren’t a total nightmare,” Donghyuck adds into the silence, “Just for posterity, when would you guess that we can really start testing your patience?”_

_Mark chuckles, “I said I made friends I didn’t say you didn’t test my patience.”_

_Donghyuck laughs along with him, and tries to open up his body posture to where Mark is leaning against the wall. He doesn’t know what to say now._

_“I’ve also just been thinking about how soon I’m going to be out of here, how scary that is,” Mark says._

_He nods, “It’s your last year, right?”_

_Mark laughs a little, “Yeah, that too.”_

_That sentence doesn’t make sense, but Donghyuck doesn’t want to push, “You’re going to be fine,” he assures, hoping he’s hitting in the right ballpark of what to say._

_Mark smiles, “Thanks,” but then he stops, takes a long pause, “You’ve got a long journey ahead of you dude, it’s not easy.”_

_Donghyuck sighs, “Yeah, I figured. It’s a good bet though, at least that’s what it seems like.”_

_“No, it’s awesome, don’t get me wrong,” Mark shifts his gaze to him for the first time since they sat down, “What are you aiming for?”_

_He shifts, joining Mark in leaning against the wall. His arms wrap around his knees, and his chin rests in the divots between them._

_“I want to be a superhero,” he thinks he feels Mark tense beside him and he looks up and smiles at his constipated expression, “It’s like, impossible. Trust me, I know, but I can dream right?”_

_“No,” Mark is quick to interject, “it’s totally possible. You’ve just got to work hard for it, you know, they only pick the best and the people with the good skills-but you could, all of you guys could really.”_

_Donghyuck feels calmer at his reassurance and the knowledge that he isn’t going to be laughed at for his aspirations. He stretches his legs out again and puts his arms behind his head, “What about you, Mark? What drove you here?”_

_Mark sighs, and Donghyuck feels the atmosphere drop again. Damn it, he needs to get better at this whole talking thing._

_“My family, actually. I didn’t ever have any aspirations for a career, I just needed a place to go. Now, I just want to be able to follow my friends outside of here.”_

_Donghyuck thinks on the benefits of offering up a token of his own self now. If it’s worth it, if it will make Mark feel better. He reminds himself that friendship is a two way street, and says, “If it makes you feel any better, it was my family too.”_

_Mark looks over, “Really?”_

_“Yeah,” then Donghyuck laughs dryly, “I walked here.”_

_“The whole way?” Mark asks, incredulous._

_And Donghyuck nods with a smile just as tired, “Yeah, had to get replacement shoes on the way.”_

_“Geez,” Mark says, asking no questions._

_Because none need to be asked, he probably knows just as well as Donghyuck. Why no one came looking, why he wasn’t reported missing, why he only has his backpack sitting on his bed. It’s an implicit bond that Donghyuck will soon learn that more people here share than don’t._

_“I’m not sure I’m helping much,” Donghyuck admits, and Mark laughs again._

_“No, I feel much better now,” Mark tells him, and when he meets his eyes again his expression is somber in a way Donghyuck can’t place, “I’m really glad we got to do this.”_

_Donghyuck scoffs, “Don’t worry, if we got to do a heart to heart on day one, I’m sure our friendship will contain many more,” and he remembers being happy that he finally had a true friend, one that knows all of what makes him who he is and doesn’t want to flinch away._

_Mark smiles, stands up, but he’s acting weird again, “I can’t wait, Donghyuck.”_

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the simulations aren’t that bad for the rest of the week. The gradually get a bit more complex, definitely more stressful, but with each one Donghyuck gets more acquainted with what to expect and much less flustered.

Then came Thursday.

He comes to Boah at the end of the day, after he’s put away his flight suit and gotten ice for the gnarly bruise forming on his shoulder from a high impact collision he had with Jungwoo earlier. Originally, he was slated to just go to sleep, but Boah came and found him in the elevator.

“Donghyuck,” she hadn’t paused at his surprised expression, “sorry to ask this so suddenly, would you be up to doing one last simulation today.”

“Um,” he had said, not wanting to let her down, “Yeah, I’m down.”

She smiled mischievously, and now he’s outside the room of mirrors at a time way too close to his bedtime, wondering when he’s going to feel secure enough to say no when people ask things.

“Sorry to pull you so late,” she confesses, “I wanted to do this earlier today, but I couldn’t find the file he had given me. Then when I found it, I had been working all day and the machine was ready so I just figured I’d ask if you were still good for today instead of tomorrow.”

Donghyuck pouted, no one explains things thoroughly here, “Who gave you what file?”

Without looking at him, without acknowledging that it might be a big deal, Boah says, “Sicheng.”

Oh.

“It’s the thing he thought it would be important for you to see,” noticing his sudden silence, she looks over her shoulder, “You good?”

He nods, and tries to give he a reassuring smile. It doesn’t work, and she turns around and crosses her arms. Donghyuck feels a flight of panic, he isn’t quite ready to confront this guilt.

“What’s up?” she asks in a way that makes it apparent that this is more demand than request.

When his eyes avert for a second, he sees her eyebrows fly up in his peripheral vision, he sighs, bracing himself to look back, and says, “They don’t like that I’m replacing Winwin, do they?”

His eyes meet hers again, and she looks confused, “Replacing Sicheng? That’s not what’s happening.”

Anger flares up inside him when she says that, because it’s just not true. The subject is tiptoed around, he’s called an addition and new member, but it’s just semantics as to what’s really happening. Winwin (he can’t quite call him his real name so confidently, not like all of his team can) is gone, and now Donghyuck is here. The only difference is that one day Winwin is supposed to come back, and Donghyuck isn’t sure how to balance this information into how he behaves. A temporary replacement for a valued hero. He doesn’t even have a specialty yet.

“You’re not replacing him, Donghyuck,” Boah plows on, apparently sensing his hesitation, “We’ve been considering you for a long time now, it’s not just a spur of the moment decision.”

“But you were waiting, weren’t you?” Donghyuck bursts, too brazen to be polite, “Waiting for my specialty, waiting until I graduated, waiting until I was ready, and I’m not. I’m here right now because Winwin’s gone, and someone needs to be here now. I’m replacing him.”

Boah sighs, “I’m sorry you feel that way, I promise no one feels like that.”

Donghyuck looks away, “How does he feel about it?”

She pauses, and that makes Donghyuck feel awful. Boah rubs her eyes, sighs, “I want to lie to you, I really do, but I won’t. I don’t know. He’s a really good person, I can’t imagine it’s bad. Still, you’re gonna have to figure that out for yourself when you meet him. I don’t think he would’ve bothered to pick you a simulation if he hated you, that’s not like him.”

Donghyuck cocks his head, “Didn’t you ask him to?”

“No, I picked most of them myself,” Boah says, “It’s just that your teammates all had things they wanted to make sure you didn’t miss.”

“Everyone picked one?”

She turns around again, “Except Mark.”

Ouch.

“Okay, it’s ready for you now, you can step inside.”

He turns his head and starts to walk away, only for her to catch his shoulder and spin him around.

“Seriously, Donghyuck, don’t worry at all about it. You’re a very valued person.”

He smiles at her, and she gives her own closed mouth and gentle one back. As he steps into the mirrored room, he tries not to think about how untrue he thinks that is as the whirring turns into a whole new world.

The world of a high-rise.

In front of him, is a man in his mid stages of his life tied to a chair, sweating out what must be most of the water his body can hold.

“Cooperate, and we won’t have any problems, sound good?” Yuta asks from somewhere behind him, and Donghyuck can feel the heat of his sparks flying close by.

Taeil is standing behind the man, silent but with a furrow to his brow that shows his concern. Winwin kneels down, looks the man in the eyes. His eyes widen and he begins to noticeably shake. Donghyuck doesn’t blame him, he would be terrified being on the wrong side of Winwin’s gaze as well.

The man struggles and tilts his chin back and as far away as possible, but Winwin grabs it and forces his face back forward.

“Will you tell us the safe combination?” Winwin asks and his voice is low and sweet as honey, absolutely terrifying.

“No! Never!” the man screams, screwing his eyes shut, and Donghyuck wonders how he didn’t know it was a lost cause.

“I will throw you out this window!” Yuta yells from behind him, and Donghyuck likes to imagine that Winwin found that to be an attractive option.

Winwin sighs, leans closer, “Open your eyes.”

“No!”

“Open, your eyes.”

“No! No, no, no, no, no, no!”

The simulation pauses, and before she can ask, Donghyuck answers.

“I open his eyes.”

The motion snaps back to the scene, and Winwin lunges forward and pries open just one eye and stares deeply. His voice tone changes, which Donghyuck didn’t expect to be a part of Winwin’s power, but it’s deeper and darker, almost seductive.

“Stop,” is all Winwin commands, and the man does.

Mind meld.

Slowly, the man turns fully forward, both eyes falling open. Winwin doesn’t say anything for a long time, and neither does the man. Suddenly, he’s calling out numbers while Winwin sits still, Taeil runs to a knob in the wall and turning fiercely. When the man stops, there’s tears coming from the corners of his eyes and rolling slowly down his cheeks. They snap out of it at the same time and the man sags like a puppet with cut strings, Winwin stands up with an unnatural calm.

It’s moments like this that Donghyuck wishes he could tell what these people were thinking, because Yuta asks, “Did you get some collateral?” and Donghyuck has no idea what that means.

But Winwin nods.

“Just ignore it, it’s not important,” Yuta tilts his head, imploring him, “We’ll deal with it later.”

Then Winwin steps towards Taeil while Yuta undoes the binds the man has, apparently they don’t need him anymore. The safe opens, and Taeil snatches up a set of files and a ring of keys quickly, flipping through them and whispering to someone else over his in ear communicator. Winwin, however, is slow. He reaches forward, grabs a leather bound journal sitting near the back of the safe amongst jewelry boxes and flash drives, unsuspecting yet incriminating. It’s as if he were looking for it. He flips it open, begins to read, and Donghyuck looks away the first time the words register.

Holy shit.

He’s heard of awful people, monsters, keeping journals that catalog places and practices and victims, but he thought that was more an exercise of fiction than anything real. The journal had pictures, details, and more that Donghyuck didn’t want to know of girls and boys that he had gotten away with hurting, with abusing, with all the things Donghyuck doesn’t let himself read.

Does collateral mean he saw something? Winwin’s not a mind reader, but maybe being aligned with someone’s conscious means sometimes you slip into being more them than you. Beneath his nose, the book closes. The man stands up somewhere across the room, and before Donghyuck can really register it, Winwin’s hand is around his throat.

“Sicheng!” Yuta calls, “Stop!”

But he doesn’t.

Instead he backs him up against the window, sees the genuine fear in this monster’s eyes as he feels that it’s ready to swing open at any time.

“I don’t care what you saw, you can’t kill him on the job!” Yuta says again, but makes no move to pull him off.

The simulation pauses.

“Do I choose?” Donghyuck asks, already decided.

“Yes, you do,” Boah says, tone neutral.

“I push him out the window.”

Winwin pushes him out the window.

And the simulation stops.

As he steps out of the room of mirrors, Boah has an expression similar to what he imagines Winwin’s must have.

“Johnny caught him, just so you know. He was right outside.”

Donghyuck tilts his head, “Did Winwin know that?”

“On the record?” Boah says, and she smiles, “Yes.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday, he flys properly for the first time.

It’s the end of the day, and he does laps around the room as Johnny chases him, laughing the whole time. Beneath him, Taeil cheers him on, as loud as Donghyuck has ever heard him.

When he touches on the ground, Taeil sweeps him up in a hug, and Donghyuck giggles as the shorter man spins him around.

“Incredible! That was incredible!” he praises.

Donghyuck rubs the back of his neck, shy and not willing to take the compliment, “It was all right.”

“No, incredible!” Taeil says again, smile wide.

 _You’re the one person who has made me feel the most welcome,_ Donghyuck wants to say, but gets caught off guard by Johnny patting him on the back.

“Seriously, Donghyuck, you’re a natural.” Johnny affirms, his expression one of someone who is genuinely impressed.

It’s just the three of them, everyone else leaving early to deal an interview in the lobby for some stupid talk show. Donghyuck smiles at these people, these friends, who have made him feel welcome.

“Thank you,” Donghyuck says, and it’s as genuine as they are.

Taeil hugs him again, and Donghyuck can’t stop smiling back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s the last day, the last simulation.

Jungwoo’s choice.

The world loads up, and Donghyuck looks around at the familiar carnage in a new angle. The dust is still settling where the building has collapsed, and he watches as Jaehyun touches down on the ground in front of it. It’s so quiet, even more still than it was when Donghyuck saw it in Super Management’s lobby. This was this week, this was a week ago.

“Jungwoo, you’re a go.” and then he’s gone.

Jungwoo teleports someplace that Donghyuck can’t place. It’s dark and dingy, a few lights that flicker uncertainly above him are all he has to light the way. There’s no windows, a few rusty doors. The air is filled with dust that seems to come from fractures in the ceiling.

Adrenaline surges through his system despite his rational knowledge that he isn’t actually there. Jungwoo is underneath the building.

Through his earpiece, he hears the Jaehyun of this time talk with a voice of thinly veiled panic, “There’s only one pushing through up here. Woo, what’s the situation downstairs?”  
He looks around, there’s nothing here. There’s tons and tons of empty receptacles in the wall, but they’re all empty with the doors blown wide open. Donghyuck tries to compare their size mentally to what size he believes the definition-less monster was last week, and hopes he’s wrong in thinking it’s similar.

“There’s none down here, this doesn’t make sense,” Jungwoo replies.

“Where could they have gone? They were all kept on site, we know that,” Mark comes over the system, and it’s unsurprisingly the most he’s heard of Mark this week.

“Vision told us that there was no evacuation of any of their experiments recently, the bomb threat today has been their only irregular behavior since we started monitoring,” Jaehyun adds.

 _Who is Vision?_ Donghyuck thinks as he hears footsteps.

He turns to the direction of the noise as Jungwoo calls out, “Who’s there?”

There’s a long span of nothing except measured footfalls, and then a man rounds the corner; the lower half of his face concealed by a deep black mask. His hair is a shock of ashy brown that barely conceals the angry fire in his eyes.

He leaps before Jungwoo does.

Jungwoo teleports behind him before the man lands, but he spins around and catches him by the front of his suit. He’s slammed against the wall, and Donghyuck feels it reverberate through his VR equipment. It’s strong, much too strong for any normal person.

“Encounter in the basement,” Jungwoo projects over his communicator, “Superhuman.”

In his ear he hears Jaehyun call, “ _What!_ Jungwoo, who?”

But the man is on him again, and Jungwoo grapples him before throwing him over his shoulder and to the ground. The mans up quick though, jumping too high and kicking Jungwoo across his cheek.

Donghyuck’s glad his suit doesn’t have headgear.

He’s on the floor, surprised and unprepared for the assault. The stranger’s foot sits on his chest, pressing down with a force that betrays his status once more. Donghyuck looks up, and sees a gun that glows an unnatural sort of blue mere inches from his face. That is nothing that was produced with a legal eye.

And then Jungwoo teleports, leaving the building behind.

The image falls away.

He steps out of the room, and the atmosphere is much more somber than it was before.

Donghyuck pauses, before looking at Boah, “I, um, was I supposed to be making choices in that one?”

She shakes her head, “That was the last one, we wanted to show you why you’re here.”

For a long moment, there’s nothing. Then Taeyong stands up and takes a step towards him, “TS Labs had a whole collection of genetically altered beings in their basement, along with who knows how many experimental weapons for sale to arms dealers that we aren’t familiar with. We had long term surveillance on them since we first were made aware of it, but it all went to shit when someone called a bomb threat on the building, then followed through.”

That’s, well that’s heavy, “They’re all _missing?_ ” Donghyuck asks.

Taeyong nods, “And we’ve pinned this person, this super, as the culprit.”

On Boah’s screen, his angered face shows through.

“We know who he is though, right? All superhumans are on record,” Donghyuck states the controversial fact.

“He’s no one we can find,” Boah interjects, “and that makes it all the more pressing that we find answers and brace for the worst.”

Donghyuck feels a little overwhelmed, a little afraid to be thrown in so fast, “And what’s the worst?”

Taeyong sighs, and Donghyuck sees fear reflected in his face too, “A fight, a big fight. Chaos in Neo City.”

There’s silence as they watch Donghyuck’s reaction. He tries to keep it on the inside and away from his face, but truthfully it’s a bit scary. When the president had told him that they were expecting a threat to Neo City, he thought it would be on the scale that Team 127 had encountered previously. From the way they describe this, it sounds like it could be shaping up to be a conflict the size of which made Girls’ Generation famous around the time Donghyuck was just learning what a super hero was.

“That’s heavy,” Donghyuck says, not sure how else to put it.

Taeyong nods, but then he smiles, “But that’s why we grabbed you. We’re gonna be stronger, ready for this, I just know it.”

That sends warmth through Donghyuck, and he smiles at Taeyong, “I’ll try not to let you down.”  
Johnny scoffs from the floor, and when Donghyuck looks over at him, he’s smiling through the bad atmosphere, “You won’t.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Donghyuck steps out of the changing room, almost everyone is gone. In fact, there’s only four people left: Taeyong, Boah, Taeil, and Mrs. Park. Donghyuck furrows his brow, he hasn’t seen her all week.

“-are you sure? It’s not too late, there are other capable candidates,” Mrs. Park pleads, and it’s then Donghyuck realizes that they don’t know he walked out.

“We’ve said from the beginning that there was never any doubt, he has always been our only choice,” Taeyong refutes, and it takes Donghyuck a second to register that the inflection in his voice is anger.

“He doesn’t even have a specialty yet, it’s a liability,” she refutes, also speaking with sharp tones.

And Donghyuck realizes they’re talking about him.

His heart drops.

This time it’s Taeil that cuts in, “He is one of the best candidates I’ve ever seen. He fights well, his decision making meshes well with the team, and he can fly like I have never seen before. It’s incredible. If you think there is a more eligible candidate, they should be able to debut as a solo hero once they’re done training, because that surely means they are something unheard of.”  
Mrs. Park pauses.

“I don’t understand,” Boah speaks up, “you were a part of the decision making process, why are you only throwing a fit once he was formally chosen?”

“Don’t act like that, we all know Sooman had the only real call in this,” Mrs. Park retorts.

“It doesn’t matter either way, because we agree,” Taeyong says, and then he looks over, seeing Donghyuck.

“Sorry, I just came out,” he lies, “What did I miss?”

There’s a long, tense pause, where all of the older heroes and teachers look at each other. Slowly, Taeyong turns back to him with a tired smile.

“Nothing to worry about, Mrs. Park just wanted to hear how training went.”

He tries to smile at his old teacher, but find he can’t quite meet her eyes, “I think it went well, Mrs. Park.”

She smiles, her lips tight, “Well that’s good to hear, Mr. Lee.”  
Donghyuck looks at the ground, only to feel an arm rest around his shoulder. When he searches for its owner, he finds Taeil standing behind him, his stance protective.

“I’m going to escort Donghyuck up, I’ll see you all later,” he says, nodding to Taeyong and Boah, not looking at Mrs. Park. Together, they walk to the elevator, and as the doors close Taeil sighs as his shoulder’s drop.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Donghyuck asks, lying by playing dumb.

“I don’t know how much you heard, but it must’ve been something,” Donghyuck sags slightly, willing to let the sadness show a little, and Taeil frowns, “I just hope you know that none of us feel like that.”  
Donghyuck says what he truly thinks, “It’s okay if you do.”  
“It wouldn’t be,” Taeil says quickly, and it’s the harshest he’s ever seen him, “You’re capable, you’re capable even without a specialty. It’s ridiculous what she’s saying, and I don’t understand why she’s saying it.”

Donghyuck deeply appreciates the friend he’s found in Taeil, and he gives him a grateful smile as the doors to the elevator open, “Thank you.”

Taeil smiles back at him, tired, “We’ll come help you move tomorrow morning, okay? Everyone’s been dying to get you home.”

 _Home_ , it makes his heart warm as he steps into the empty suite.

“Thank you,” he says again.

Taeil waves at him as the doors close, and for the first time Donghyuck feels content, excited even to settle into his new team.

Because now he sees they’ve got his back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_When Donghyuck wakes up the next morning, he finds that he’s the last one, even though some of them look like they’d much rather be asleep._

_He rubs his eyes and turns to his friend with a sleepy smirk, “Not much of a morning person, Renjun?”_

_He gets a groan in response._

_“Breakfast?” Jaemin asks, ruffling his hair and swinging off his bunk, causing the first of many thoughts that perhaps Donghyuck finds him the slightest bit attractive._

_“Sounds good,” Donghyuck affirms around a yawn._

_They arrive at the cafeteria together, and Donghyuck squints, looking around for Mark’s head. He seems like the early riser type, he should be here._

_“Do you guys see Mark anywhere?” Donghyuck asks, and gets noises of sleepy dissent in return._

_They steal an empty table, saving a spot for their friend who never comes. They go to training together, but there is the mutual feeling that they are all a little bit worried. Dining is for all years, it wasn’t as if he shouldn’t have been there. It just doesn’t make sense._

_And then he doesn’t show up to lunch, or dinner, and when they’re settling in after their first day, they all worry whether he’s died in his sleep or something._

_Until they don’t._

_“Hey! Come look at this!” Someone cries, Donghyuck doesn’t remember her name right now, “They’re debuting a new superhero team!”_

_And, of course, everyone who can hear races over. Donghyuck sits down and Chenle falls over the back of the couch to get in front of the TV._

_And then it feels like the world stops. In the corner of the news station discussing the new team to replace the retiring Girls’ Generation is a picture of all of them, all nine of them._

_And one is Mark._

_“That’s bit surprising,” Jeno says behind him, and it’s the understatement of the century._

_Donghyuck feels a little lied to, a little hurt, but he can’t place why. It’s not like Mark had to tell them, in fact he probably couldn’t. But still, he see the new heroes smiling off the screen and feels a fledgling friendship loose its wings._

_He looks around at all his friends._

_He doesn’t want to loose anyone again._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any and all comments make me sob into my hands and there's nothing I enjoy more than emotional distress so!! Let me know your thoughts!!


	3. The Deep End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If this is taking it easy, Donghyuck thinks, I’m going to be dead before I ever get to the real shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  
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> ANYWAYS ENJOY

It’s early Monday morning, and Donghyuck is sitting two feet from the elevator door, debating how bad it would really be to get locked out of his suite right now.

He hasn’t gotten his new ID card that gives him access to the whole building, and right now he’s wishing more than anything that he got it earlier so that this wasn’t as much of a problem. His old team down below him is waking up soon on their second week without him, and Donghyuck doesn’t have any place to be until 127 got here. He wants to hop in the elevator and hit the low floor button to soar down and see them again, but he has no idea how the fuck he’s going to get back up here without a new ID.

 _Fuck it,_ Donghyuck thinks, pushing himself up with one hand and swinging his body away. He walks to his couch and the notepad that sits on the coffee table. On first glance, it’s a nice touch to the suite. On second glance, it’s stolen from a Hyatt. Doesn’t matter, Donghyuck scribbles a note that tells whoever comes up where he is and places it on the kitchen counter. Then before the thin paper has even settled into place, he’s sprinting to the elevator and hitting the button to call it up.

You only get to make bad decisions so many times, and this seems to be in the upper echelon of all of Donghyuck’s “bad decisions” in his humble opinion. He steps into the elevator and hits the button to go to the dorms, then waits.

The elevator is objectively fast but also so unspeakably and unbearably slow. Donghyuck’s leg bounces as his foot taps rapidly with each passing floor. Around seventy floors later, the doors slide open and Donghyuck is spilling out from the crack between them before they still.

He had forgotten already how different it was down here. The lobby was so much smaller than he had thought it was before, and so much more lively in contrast to what he had just moved into. The scattered belongings of his classmates lay everywhere, from Renjun’s sketchbook sticking up from the crevices of the couch to Yerim’s blanket draped over the back of a dining room chair. He steps inside, looking around. The lights are warmer, the carpet is plusher, it even smells different; more like house and less like spray cleaner. However, it is notably just as still as it was upstairs. No one’s here.

“Hello?” Donghyuck calls out, stepping further into the room. He doesn’t know why he feels so reluctant, so much like an intruder.

He looks over to the clock that hangs on the wall above the TV. It’s nearly, 8:00, a time Donghyuck had adjusted to greatly over the course of the week. Typically, his team was waking up around now and everyone else was coming back from breakfast to prepare for strengthening. The silence strikes him as extremely eery, and he calls out again as he steps further into the room.

Finally, a call back, “Donghyuck?”

Jisung steps out around the corner, his face pale except for a bright flush on his nose and cheeks, his hair rumpled.

Donghyuck races with a warm surge of affection, he missed this kid so much.

“Hi, Jisungie,” he coos, “Are you sick? You don’t look to well.”

He sniffles, pulls his sleeves over his hands, “Some random kid sneezed on me when Chenle and I got breakfast the other day, I’m so mad.”

“Aww, poor you,” Donghyuck can’t help smiling as he walks up to Jisung and ruffles his hair.

Jisung pouts a little, and Donghyuck figures it must be a pretty decent sickness for him to be acting so docile.

“Hyuck,” Jisung croaks, “why are you here? Shouldn’t you be training?”

“I finished training yesterday, I’m moving out soon. I just really wanted to see you all before I left again,” Donghyuck finally voiced what had been bothering him, “Speaking of, where is everyone? It’s so dead for eight o’clock.”

“Oh,” Jisung sighs, “We had special training, had to get up early. I’m just here because I’m too sick to handle what the aerobics they wanted to practice today.”

Donghyuck’s heart sank, of course the one day he pulled together the idea to actually leave his assigned prison there would be mandatory specialized training. Life was just not over it’s vendetta for him yet.

“Jaemin is going to be so mad,” Jisung ponders, “Renjun too, they’ve both been lamenting you being gone constantly. It really brings down the mood when they get into it.”

That makes Donghyuck smile in a bittersweet way, “Well I’m glad someone misses me.”

“We all miss you, I was just trying to make a joke,” Jisung pats him awkwardly on the shoulder, probably meant to be comforting. Donghyuck smiles with more certainty, he really missed this kid.

“Well thank you, Jisung, I really miss you too,” Donghyuck reaches out to lead Jisung back to their room, because he truly does not look like he should be standing for too much longer, “Are you okay being alone? You really seem out of it.”

Jisung opens his mouth, closes it, looks off into the distance with an awkward height to his shoulders, “Well, you see, actually-”

From behind him, “Jisung! I’m heading out, are you going to be okay?”

And in no world would Donghyuck have picked Yangyang to come out from their dorm room.

Donghyuck freezes, an eyebrow wandering up in absent shock. Yangyang also pauses, and in that moment of still, Donghyuck inclines himself to thinking the absolute worst of what will happen. Of what he will assume. But Yangyang was something that could never seem to be influenced by Donghyuck’s expectations. He grins widely, and walks towards Donghyuck with strides that seem to bounce.

“Hey! Donghyuck! Where have you been? I would’ve been worried if this wasn’t the kind of drama you live to create,” the way he says it with a smile, without holding any notion of what might be the answer, it begs to set Donghyuck at ease but he can feel the way all of the benign motion of his body slows to a stop.

“It’s kind of personal,” Donghyuck admits, and he can see the way the intent behind Yangyang’s expression flips from something teasing to something a little more contained, perhaps even serious, “but I’m doing fine, everything will be fine.”

He hopes.

Yangyang rubs the back of his neck, “Offer to talk is still there.”

Donghyuck smiles, he had forgotten about that, “I’ll see about it,” he shakes his head slightly and throws on something believable happy, “But why are you here? Don’t you have special training today?”

He waves him off, throws an arm over Jisung, who stiffens up but not as much as Donghyuck would anticipate. Perhaps this has been a week of changes for everyone, “I did some summer stuff that dealt with the same ideas of what they’re training, so they let me stay back to help sicky here.”

Donghyuck snorts at Jisung’s pout, “Didn’t you also need to be heading out, Yangyang?”

Yangyang squints, as if thinking, and then his face lights up in realization, “ _Fuck,_ yeah I was,” he looks down at the sinch bag in his hand and groans, “I literally forgot my whole water bottle, who am I?”

Donghyuck laughs as Yangyang turns and runs back where he came. He hears a door shut and he looks at an exasperated Jisung with a laugh.

“So, you’re friends now?” Donghyuck asks.

Jisung shrugs, “It’s weird, none of us had ever really talked to him much and then, I don’t know, he kind of started making an effort, and, yeah.”  
Donghyuck rubs his shoulder, “Don’t be so surprised someone wants to be your friend Jisung.”

“He was only ever kind of your friend.”

Donghyuck shrugs, “Kind of,” because kind of is right.

Before he can say anything else, he hears the tell tale chime of the elevator opening behind him. He would like to believe that it’s someone from his class opening the door, but Donghyuck knows on some cerebral level that life would never go so easily along with what he wants.

When he looks tho the chrome doors, Johnny and Jaehyun are standing, waiting.

Donghyuck considers it character development that his heart doesn’t drop in anxiety at the sight of them.

On the other hand, Jisung freezes up behind him, and when Donghyuck turns back to him he sees awe striking his face. It makes Donghyuck smile as he rolls his eyes.

“Donghyuck, we’ve got to go, you ready?” Johnny asks, and the both of them step out into the place he still calls home in his head.

“Yeah, I’m good to go,” he turns around, but grabs Jisung’s concealed hand to pull him forward and next to him. He needs to get going before Yangyang comes back, but this is important to him, “I want to introduce you to someone, this is Jisung, he’s one of my teammates.”

Johnny smiles in the warm and wide way Donghyuck has begun to associate with him this week. Jisung still looks completely starstruck.

Jaehyun speaks first, “It’s nice to meet you, Jisung.”

“Indeed it is,” Johnny adds on, but then he nods to the doors.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Donghyuck affirms before turning back to Jisung and giving him a light hug, he probably isn’t too infectious, “I’ll miss you, but I get my phone back soon. I’ll call when I can, okay?”

When he pulls back, there’s a cloudiness to Jisung’s eyes he’ll attribute to his sickness but know on a deeper level is not, “Okay, I’ll tell everyone you stopped by.”

Donghyuck steps back and waves, “Bye, Jisungie.”

“Bye, Hyuck.”

As the doors start to close, he hears another familiar voice asking Jisung where he went.

Donghyuck sighs in the relief of getting to hide this for a little bit longer.

 

 

 

 

 

Packing up Donghyuck’s stuff is, admittedly, not much of a task.

Not much ever left the suitcase, and Donghyuck had gotten everything put away except for the essentials last night. When Johnny and Jaehyun get up there, all they really have to do is wait for Donghyuck to put it all together and get back out.

Everything is fairly normal until they step back into the elevator. Johnny swiped his ID card, and he hits the ground floor button three times. Donghyuck giggles.

“You know that doesn’t make it go faster, right?”

Jaehyun chuckles and Johnny just smiles softly at him, “I’m aware, thank you Donghyuck.”

There have always been two doors in the elevator. Most of the lower floors opened to the front of Donghyuck, and most of the ones for the higher floors opened to the door behind him. So that’s why he was surprised when the elevator hit the first floor, and the door glided open behind him.

Of course, there was some secret way to avoid the crowds. No wonder no one ever sees the heroes in the very building they work in.

Both Johnny and Jaehyun are watching him with a sense of amusement Donghyuck doesn’t care to acknowledge as he steps out of the elevator and into the pristine hidden hallway.

The walls are all white, and the tile a similar monotone. If it wasn’t for the screens built into every wall, all projecting different scenes from around the building, the whole place would come across as more sterile than impressive.

“Oh please tell me that this is a secret passage through the building, please tell me its true,” Donghyuck begs, enamored with the glamor of superhero life he had been depraved of despite having lived it for a week.

“Well, not to make your day or anything,” Johnny teases, stepping out in front of him, “Come on, follow me.”

Johnny and Jaehyun lead the way towards what Donghyuck knows is the rear of the building, the backs of their hands knocking enough that it draws his eyes down. Every now and then, people in casual polos and blouses pass by, and gentle nods of acknowledgment are shared as the two of them slowly take a step apart. None of these people are familiar faces to Donghyuck, and he wonders who they are to be somewhere that is such a well guarded secret that Donghyuck hasn’t even heard of it in even the most dedicated conspiracy theories about the building he calls home.

The hallway turns gently to the right, but his new teammates push open a door that runs parallel to the corner instead. It’s a thin staircase, much darker but still pristine, running down to the basement of the building. When they step out they’re in a similarly dim room lined with lockers, but this one has people, friends; Taeyong, Jungwoo, Taeil.

“Good morning, Donghyuck,” Taeyong greets, “Come on, we’re running a little late, let’s get going.”

He immediately opens the door to head out of the room, and before Donghyuck can follow, Jungwoo smiles and mutters a, “Think fast,” and Donghyuck catches what’s thrown at him without thinking.

It’s his phone.

The smile that takes over his face is a dumb one, and he holds the old iPhone tightly to his chest as Taeil corals him out the door.

They move into part of the basement loading bay that Donghyuck has never seen. As he walks towards the nondescript van that’s parked alone in the cold concrete, he realizes that this is a floor below the place where Jaemin and he make their escape once a month. How had they missed this?

“I’m learning so many things today,” Donghyuck comments lowly to Taeil and appreciates the smile he gets in response.

“You mean they don’t teach about the whole secret superhero system of our building in training anymore?” Taeil jokes just flat enough that it takes Donghyuck a second to grasp the joke.

“No they don’t!” He declares loudly, and they both giggle.

They step inside the van, and Taeyong ends up shoving him between Johnny and Taeil on the backseat while he takes shotgun. Jungwoo and Jaehyun settle in the middle, the latter of which is quick to settle against the window with his eyes closed. Jungwoo turns around to smile at Donghyuck.

“Are you excited?” he asks.

And, honestly, “Yes.”

The rest of the ride proceeds in a similar way. For the most part there’s a lot of small talk, a lot of yawns. Donghyuck appreciates the friendly atmosphere, the way an early morning car ride through Neo City feels. After a while they pull away from the city center and towards the old part of town, preserved through new money and tourism (“ _Gentrification too,_ ” a voice that sounds a lot like Renjun spits in his head). Donghyuck has never gotten a chance to visit, despite knowing that these neighborhoods house all of the Superheroes that their city has so offer. The car stops in the middle of a block, and Donghyuck would be embarrassed at how eagerly he leans across Johnny if he wasn’t so enamored with what he was seeing.

All of the houses on this block had been renovated years ago when a strong art movement had hit the city, turning their traditional architecture bright with jewel toned paints and sweeping gardens that lead up to the high sidewalks. Their home was decked in a deep jade, a soft ruby, and a firm black all while possibly being three stories tall. He doesn’t know if he’s entirely comfortable with living here.

“Is this actually where we live?” Donghyuck asks, a little breathless.

“That’s a bit complicated” Jaehyun responds groggily while lifting his head up.

Donghyuck cocks his head in confusion, and in the pause Johnny turns to him and offers a mask and baseball hat.

“Press camps here all the time, and I think we’re all in agreement that it would be best to keep this on the down low for now.” He explained.

Donghyuck takes them in his hand, grateful, “You would be right about that.”

Johnny smiles. The driver slides open the door behind Jaehyun and they start getting out.

Donghyuck assumed when they meant press camped out that there was the potential to have someone run up and shove a camera in their faces, so he assumes it’s safe as soon as he steps out into a peaceful street. An old but rather agile lady walks past with a small bulldog, and Donghyuck can’t help feeling it’s almost unsettlingly still.

As if reading his mind, Jaehyun hums, “They’ve picked out some great places that we can’t see from here. Don’t ever feel safe coming home, it’s never that easy.”

He’s handed one of his bags, and he turns to face the house with that warning in mind. He tilts his face down, walks in the middle of the group. The driver leaves them behind and once Taeyong unlocks the ornate doors, they step into the quiet home alone.

There’s no furniture.

“This is unsettling,” Donghyuck comments, moving to take off the mask. Taeyong motions for him to leave it on before he can go any further.

“Yeah, because we don’t live here,” Jaehyun says as Taeyong unlocks another door that sits flush under a grandiose stairwell, “It’s a cover, so we can be left alone.”

The door swings open, and it unveils a dark stairwell, going someplace Donghyuck just can’t see.

“This is so dramatic.”

Johnny slaps him on the back, “Welcome to the life! Come on, let’s hurry. I hate this place.”

They all step into the dank staircase, lit almost forebodingly by a single white lightbulb halfway down the long passage. When they reach the bottom Donghyuck has to suppress a shiver at the drop in temperature. He looks around at the solid concrete, and the long path it forms forward. He hopes this doesn’t turn out to be bat cave type of situation. Claustrophobia hasn’t been a problem in his life so far, but he also hasn’t given it that many chances to become one.

Taeyong leads them forward, all of them nonplussed to Donghyuck’s hesitation. It’s a long walk with few turns, all of them without an option to get lost. He turns to Taeil, after three long minutes of walking and ask the question beging an answer, “Is every super home like this?”

He nods, “Yeah. Trust me, it’s really nice once you get used of it.”

Donghyuck tilts his head in ascent. He doesn’t get it but he figures one day he might.

Eventually, they come upon another set of stairs. Taeyong unlocks the door at the top with another set of keys, and pushes open the door into the noise of a living home.

 _Oh,_ Donghyuck thinks, _I suppose this makes sense._

They all walk out into a much smaller space. It’s laid out more like a townhouse, an open living room that bleeds into a dining space and beyond. There’s a few hallways branching out and a staircase leading up, but even then he can already tell that this is much more modest than what he had assumed. It’s also much more lived in. There’s pictures on the walls that Donghyuck can’t quite make out and a shameful pile of shoes next to the door they just walked through.

“This is home,” Taeyong proclaims, “Totally secure, unless something’s changed in the past few hours. You can take off your mask if you want.”

Donghyuck obeys, pulling it down slowly, “So you have the house that you formally live in that everybody haunts and takes press pictures of, but it’s just a huge secret entrance for this? What is this a condo?”

Jungwoo laughs, “Yeah, pretty much.”

Donghyuck turns back to look at the door they came through. Johnny’s locking it.

“So is that the only way in?”

“Or out,” Taeyong affirms, “It seems dumb, but then it doesn’t give us the opportunity to accidentally get spotted outside. Or to let someone build a theory about why we always enter the house but the sometimes we don’t leave before we come back. It’s just insurance for stupid mistakes.”

Donghyuck pauses. Why is everything so thought out, “I suppose that makes sense.”

“I think it’s pretty nifty,” Johnny agrees, before looking at Donghyuck with a mischievous smile and a spare keyring that he drops into waiting hands, “Come on, let me show where you’re sleeping.”

Taeil takes a bag from Jaehyun, and together he, Johnny, and Taeil depart from the others and up the stairs. Around them are full floor to ceiling windows that look out into a yard with a tall fence that Donghyuck will never get to step into. They pass a picture framed in silver, and the person he makes eye contact with is Winwin. He feels like this place is so, so much bigger than he is.

The stairs are flush against the right wall, and the landing only leads off to the left. As they walk down the hallway, Johnny points out who sleeps where, and Donghyuck’s stomach drops as he realizes the pattern.

“This is Mark and Jungwoo,” he taps lightly along the first door, then leans across the hall for the second, “This is Taeyong and Doyoung, the lightest and heaviest sleeper positioned at the end of the hall. So have fun trying to go to the kitchen in the middle of the night.”

Roommates.

“Next is me and Jaehyun,” Johnny proclaims, “Then next to you is Yuta and Winwin. Not too bad right now, but I’m giving you an early apology for when Winwin returns. Trust me, it’s warranted. Right, Taeil?”

Donghyuck looks at Taeil, and finds him nodding enthusiastically.  
“Wait,” Donghyuck asks, “So am I living with you then?”

And Taeil’s smile is only friendly, “Yep!”

Like magic, a hair of that anxiety loosens, and he can feel his shoulders drop in relief.

Johnny pushes open the door, and Donghyuck peers in after him.

It’s been hastily rearranged and cleaned, that much is obvious. A bare bed has been moved in across the room from Taeil’s, and it’s empty except for all of the belongings that have been thrown in a nonsensical pattern along the line that would split their sides of the room. It almost makes him laugh, but it’s endearing in it’s own unique way.

“I love it,” Donghyuck says, and that brings a laugh out of Taeil.

“So yeah, this will be your new abode,” Johnny declares, “Bathroom’s across the hall, and I think Taeyong has probably started making breakfast downstairs. So you settle in at your own pace and come find us when you’re ready.”

Taeil drops his suitcase at the foot of his bed, and Donghyuck sets the other beside it. He meets Donghyuck’s eyes and smiles, “Do you want any company?”

There is almost nothing Donghyuck wants less right now, “I’m good, I think I just want to be alone for a second.”

Taeil nods, and steps out of the room with Johnny. Donghyuck waits until he can hear them walk away down the hall, and it makes him realize how thin these walls are. He sits down slowly on his bare mattress and unfolds his phone from where it’s been locked in his hand.

He turns it on.

Like a bee woken from slumber or some sort of Wii Remote from hell, it doesn’t stop buzzing. Notifications upon notifications appear, almost all from his messenger app. When the chaos from a full week finally dies down, he swipes to open up the cause of all his problems. Then laughs at what he sees.

Most of the chaos comes from their group chat, the title of it lovingly changed from _5 Net Braincells (renjun inclusive)_ to _hyuckpdates_. However, what he clicks on first is the last text Jaemin sent to him, dated an hour after he left.

 

_when u read this, i miss you_

_i love you_

_call me soon_

 

Donghyuck holds it to his chest, and lets the relief of it all set in.

He texts back.

 

_i got my phone back, call me when training’s over_

_i love you too_

 

 

 

 

 

It is, perhaps, an inappropriately long amount of time that he spends sitting on that bare bed before he does just about anything. At the end of the time he allows himself to just be alone, he stretches his sheets across the bed, amazed that they are actually the right size. He stares at it for almost as long as he had sat, and then finally pulls himself together enough to go downstairs.

By the time he does, it’s just Taeyong left in the kitchen. Despite that, he still smiles when Donghyuck sits at the counter, smiles when he hands him the meal from where it sat reheated in the microwave. It’s nice to at least know he wasn’t letting him down by hiding away.

“So, we’re going to go really slow for the first week or two, just lead you around the places we patrol at night, super low-key,” Taeyong explains, “If all goes according to plan, you won’t even have to talk to any press until you’re ready. It’s just going to be hand holding for now.”

“And some fisticuffs, right?” Donghyuck teases, smiling up at Taeyong.

Taeyong lets out a light laugh and shakes his head, “Red Velvet does more of the small crime beat down, we mainly just keep an eye out for anything that might develop into something extremely dangerous.”

Donghyuck pouts, and Taeyong sighs, “But if you see some poor old lady getting her purse stolen, you’re encouraged to step in.”

A chuckle escapes him at that. Taeyong smiles and steps away from the counter, “But yeah, aside from that you’ve got nothing you have to do today. Be down here around six o’clock and we’ll walk you through getting ready. You’ll be patrolling with Yuta and Taeil tonight.”

Donghyuck cocks his head, “Nothing to do today?”

Taeyong shakes his head, “Unless some conflict arises during the day or we have a press event, we usually just hang around until whoever’s going out, goes out.”

“Oh,” Donghyuck says, relieved to know that at least he will have time to visit the people he loves somedays, “okay.”

And the day passes in hours so long Donghyuck would suppose they were ages. Weeks pass by in the time where he wanders the house, narrowly avoiding everyone who lives in it by happenstance more than intent. He and Taeil share space, but Taeil is taking a nap for all of it and Donghyuck is staring at his phone, willing any noise to come from it.

Six o’clock crawls to him, and when he comes back to the living room he wasn’t expecting the first thing he saw to be pizza.

Yuta manhandles him onto the couch between him and Doyoung and shoves a slice into his hand along with a set of napkins, and he really has no choice but to dig in.

The conversation is nice, even if Donghyuck’s voice often gets lost in the chaos. It’s especially heartwarming to see Doyoung and Taeyong get into a screaming match over whether not The Bachelor is actually a good show (It’s not, but Donghyuck is on Taeyong’s side anyway).

It’s nearing seven o’clock when Yuta finally stands from the couch, looking at Donghyuck with an eager smile.

“Come on, kid, time to get you into uniform.”

“Oh,” Donghyuck grins, “I thought you’d never say so.”

Yuta and Taeil take him down one of the hallways on the first floor, leading him into a small room that resembles a rather sparse walk in closet. Hanging up are the iconic Team 127 costumes, the grey and white bodysuits lined with red trim and, as Donghyuck can see now, small silver microfibers that he assumes must be related to the durability. On the floor are boxes with duck tape labels of the people he now works with (Mark Lee, Johnny Boy, Na Yuta, ♡Winwinnie♡, Dongyoung, etc) and boots that Donghyuck can tell are going to be a pain to break in. Yuta points him to a blank box and fresh uniform in the corner.

“This one’s yours, Donghyuck-ah,” he says, and the word _yours_ fills him up to the top, overflows, “Try it on and see if it fits.”

Donghyuck whips to face him, “In front of _you_?”

“Oh please, you’ve spent some formative years in Super Management. There’s absolutely no way you’re modest.”

Yeah, living in the constant company of other peers will do that to you. Donghyuck shrugs, and reluctantly strips out of his clothes and into the body suit. It fits startling well and moves with him comfortingly well. Taeil helps him zip it up, and as he stretches his arms out the realization that he really is a superhero now begins to set it fully.

“Holy shit,” Donghyuck mutters.

“Yeah?” Yuta asks with a kind smile, “It’s cool, right? Put on your shoes and the flying tech, it’s in your box. We’ll get changed while you’re at it.”

Ten minutes later he’s walking out in boots that flex into all the curves of his feet, flight equipment the fits snuggly around his suit, and the dopiest smile he’s worn in a long time. Beside him Yuta teases his grin with one of his own, and lays out the structure of the night.

“We stay out until about three o’clock on nights we patrol, because after that crime levels are essentially down to the level they are during the day,” Yuta explains, “We usually rotate who patrols, but because we’re still training you your life is just going to have to suck for awhile.”

Donghyuck snorts as they turn back into the living room, “Thanks, Yuta.”

“Oh for sure, don’t even worry about,” Yuta shoots back sarcastically.

Donghyuck looks over who’s left from dinner, and as soon as he does Johnny’s hand shoots up, his phone in hand.

“Donghyuck!” he calls, “Someone was calling you!”

And Donghyuck would swear, really promise, that was the fastest he has ever moved in his life.

“Hey, you’re about to patrol, it can wait,” Taeyong tells him from the side.

“I’ll be quick, I promise!” Donghyuck yells as he runs up towards his room. Or somewhere. Wherever he can find that lacks another superhero.

The door behind him to his shared bedroom slams and he throws himself bodily onto the bed. He looks down at the phone screen and sees exactly what he was truly hoping to.

 

_(1) Missed call_

_Nana_

 

Donghyuck swipes open the message and feels his heart floor as the buzzing of the call takes over the screen. He cradles it up to his ear, waiting with only minimal patience for it to fall away to something much more familiar.

There’s a pause after one ring, and his whole body freezes in the silence.

“Hyuck?” comes Jaemin’s voice from the other side of the speaker.

All of the breath leaves him at once, “Hi, Jaemin.”

There’s a long break in the conversation, and Donghyuck’s concern mounts before-

“I can not believe that out of everyone, Jisung got to see you in person! That’s so unfair!” Jaemin whines into the phone and shocks laughter out of Donghyuck, “He was the one that whined the least about you leaving, meanwhile I wouldn't shut up about it!"

"I'm sorry baby,” Donghyuck coos, the elation of talking to the boy he loves taking over his face, "I swear I was looking for everyone, you just had a weird day today."

"I know," and the performance seeps out of his voice, turning lower and truer, "and I've never been more sad about anything in my life. I miss you so much, it's ridiculous. Jeno doesn't let me cuddle him nearly as much as you do."

Donghyuck rolls over to lie on his back, "Oh really? How awful."

"Physical touch is my love language, Donghyuck."

"I think I know that better than anyone, Nana."

Jaemin sighs into the connection, "Probably."

Donghyuck closes his eyes, lets the calm of having Jaemin here fall over him. He needs to leave soon, but he's going to steal every minute he possibly can.

"How are you doing, Hyuck?" Jaemin murmurs, "Are you feeling okay? Are they treating you right?"

He smiles, confesses, “Yeah, I'm fine. I just miss you all so much. And I feel really inferior. I don't know."

"Inferior? Babe, why?"

Donghyuck sighs, "They're all heroes, Jaemin. And I don't even have a specialty."

"That shouldn't matter. Donghyuck, you were picked out of everyone. That means something."

"It doesn't feel like it," Donghyuck whispers, "There's such big shoes to fill, I'm not Winwin. I have nothing close to what he can do."

"You don't have to, not at all," he tells him, and someone knocks on the door but he'll be damned if he cuts off exactly what he's been needing to hear all week, "You're something incredible and something different. You may not see it, but I promise I do."

"You're a bit of a biased party," Donghyuck teases, and someone knocks again.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Jaemin replies in kind before switching his tone back, "Seriously, Donghyuck. You're smart, you're a good fighter, a good person. There's absolutely nothing about you that makes me think that you're not hand made for this."

"But I'm not quite ready yet, I'm just not."

"Donghyuck," Yuta calls from outside the door.

"How about you let your coworkers and the rest of the world decide that for you, huh? I think you're a bit of a biased party too, Hyuck."

"Thank you, baby," Donghyuck replies, "Jaemin, I have to go."

"What?" and Donghyuck hopes he's imagining the panicked edge to his voice, the pitch it takes on, "Wait, why?"

"I'm a hero now, or whatever.” Donghyuck tries to joke, "Can I call you tomorrow morning? Can you wake up early for me?"

"There's not much I wouldn't do for you. When were you thinking?"

"How long do you want to talk?"

"Fuck. As long as is conceivably possible. I don't want to make either of us miserable, but is seven o'clock okay?"

Donghyuck smiles and sits up, preparing himself to say goodbye, "You know I feel about the same."

"Okay then. Tommorow?"

"Yeah," Donghyuck nods, even though he knows it can't be seen, and he feels the emptiness of this room. How cold it is without someone's warmth, "I love you."

"I love you more."

"Bye, Jaemin."

"Bye-bye, Donghyuck."

For a second, neither of them hang up, but Donghyuck bites the bullet and does it for Jaemin. He stands up on shaky legs and opens the door.

"Sorry," he apologizes to a worried Yuta, "I just really needed to talk to my friend."

Yuta looks him over, and starts a sentence Donghyuck doesn’t get to discern before abruptly changing to another one, “That's fine, we just have a schedule we try to follow," he pauses, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Donghyuck lies, and then gives a truth to make up for it, "I feel much better now."

 

 

 

 

 

Running along rooftops was everything Donghyuck wanted it to be.

You can't see the stars in Neo City, it has and it will always be far too bright, but the stars that line the building that shoot along cars, they almost give the same feeling of wonder. The same nostalgia for the place he grew up. The same luster of the dreams he has held for so, so, so long.

There's no crime they find that night. Most of it is spent mapping out the spans of middle class neighborhoods, modest brick buildings and old roads that beg use of tax money they won't get for years. Yuta and Donghyuck race each other across the rooftops while Taeil laughs along behind them. It feels free, it feels like fun. Donghyuck has a face mask on to hide him from prying eyes and phone cameras, but even then he breathes easy among the elation.

“So, how do you like it?” Taeil asks him after a particularly long sprint that Yuta had won (he wins most of them, honestly).

”It's amazing," Donghyuck confesses around a grin.

Yuta claps him on the back, "I'm so happy, I'm so glad you think that."

Taeil opens his mouth to say something else, but pauses as he looks off into the distance. Quickly, a look of mild concern flips into something of elation and he steps up to the edge of the rooftop with a confidence and a certainty Donghyuck had not seen from him in the long week they've been together. He's about to ask what he's seen when Yuta beats him to the answer.

"It's Winwin!" Yuta announces, running up beside Taeil.

Adrenaline floods his system quickly. He doesn't know what to do.

"Where?" he asks, slowly stepping up to be with them.

And it's nothing like what he expects. Yuta points down, a small fleet of motorcyclists decked in matching leather pass by in something that is almost a blur. Donghyuck will admit, he is pretty confused.

"Winwin was in there?" Donghyuck asks.

"That was Vision," Yuta answers plainly, as if it makes any more sense.

"It's my first day on the job, can you go a little easy on me?”

Taeil laughs softly and Yuta's face remains neutral, but Donghyuck can spot the small embarrassed flush that crawls up the back of his neck.

"Sorry," Yuta turns to Donghyuck, "Vision is kind of our counter part? They're technically listed as private security or something, but they're our partners. Have been since earlier this year. All super heroes are supposed to be public record and such, but Sooman wanted to see how being anonymous affected super work, so now they’re like a big secret or something. Winwin is working with them for a bit while we investigate the whole TS thing. His specialty works really well with what they do."

Donghyuck pauses. Takes it all in.

"You're telling me there's a whole other half of your team that is just, completely unknown to the public?"

"Our team," Yuta corrects.

"Cool right?" Taeil says.

Donghyuck rubs his forehead, "Yeah, it kind of is cool."

"You'll hopefully meet them one day, but they're usually too busy being too cool for us to stop by," and Yuta rolls his eyes.

"Don't be bitter just because Winwinnie doesn't have time for you anymore," Taeil mocks.

"That's not why!" Yuta declares, suddenly much louder than he was before.

Donghyuck laughs when he sees the affronted look that Yuta's sporting.

He and Taeil make eye contact, and they both start giggling as Yuta does his best to defend himself.

"Hey! Hey!" and quickly, they all quiet down as they look down at a group of teenage boys below them.

Donghyuck feels himself get nervous in the face of civilians. Surely his face mask and his demeanor are suspicious. Surely something will happen here. But instead, Yuta leans forward with a playful smile.

"Shouldn't you punks be at home?"

The kid in front smiles wide, and cups his hands around his mouth again, "Do a backflip for the people, Yuta! Come on!"

"We've been over this, you know we can't!" Yuta calls back, and Donghyuck is strangely endeared by the fact that this has happened before, "What do we look like, Spiderman?"

"You've never tried!" someone else yells.

"In front of you!" Yuta retorts, "I have my image to uphold, you know!"

Yuta stands in a pose evocative of one from a comic book, and Donghyuck doubles over laughing.

One of the kids boos, and Yuta leans over. He’s committed to acting offended, but Donghyuck can see the way the corners of his mouth turn up. It makes him smile behind the white fabric of his mask.

Quickly, his mind goes into thinking. Jeno tried to teach him how to tumble once. Last summer he had got into a kick of breakdancing, and was committed to trying to teach him and Jaemin how to follow in his steps. Neither of them picked up any meaningful skill in it, but Donghyuck remembers the motion of the flip, the hypothetical steps and the motion to start. He figures he can fly now, and if he fucks up no one will know who he is for awhile anyways. Why not.

So he steps back away from the ledge and launches himself upwards and over. He engages the hover midway through, uses his hands to constantly keep himself in place in those brief seconds in which his feet come around from in front of him.

He lands. And there’s a long pause where both Yuta and Taeil stare at him, complete shock in their eyes. For a second Donghyuck thinks he’s fucked up. Thinks that he shouldn’t have called attention to himself. Shouldn’t have done anything. But then it breaks, and the kids below start cheering.

His teammates smile at him, and Donghyuck doesn’t know if he’s ready to do this, but he sure as hell is enjoying it anyways.

 

 

 

 

 

Donghyuck wakes up the next morning at 6:55 and doesn’t regret telling Jaemin that he’d do anything for him, but certainly thinks that this might be a clue that somewhere out there, there is a limit.

He creeps down the hallway with as light of steps as he can manage. It takes him years to pass in front of Taeyong’s door, Johnny’s warning of Taeyong being a light sleeper ringing in his ears. By the time he has crept down the stairs, he’s so tense that he has to stretch his muscles out before he walks across the living room and towards his favorite place that he found yesterday.

He pushes open the door with a gentle ease. On the other side is something that could be a porch if it wasn’t completely surrounded by floor to ceiling glass. Beyond it is a flourishing garden, almost something wild but just manicured enough to make it apparent that someone must take care of it. At the end of it all, terminal fences that rise to a height that even Donghyuck would think to have trouble jumping over.

He loves the view, loves how it’s held by the sunrise now. So he tucks himself into the glass corner, looking out over the garden as he calls his boyfriend.

It rings for longer than it did the other day, and for a long second Donghyuck thinks that maybe Jaemin has overslept on him. But, of course, he picks up.

His voice gravely, sleep worn, “Good morning, Hyuck.”

Donghyuck is already smiling, already warmer in the thin morning light, “Good morning, Jaemin.”

 

 

 

 

 

Jaemin hangs up in a panic around eight o’clock, having spent too long on the phone and obviously setting himself up to be late for training. Donghyuck laughs through his goodbye, able to because of the time with him and the knowledge that he will be able to have it every morning, all the time.

When he steps back into the house, he hears noise coming from the doors into the kitchen space. He walks forward carelessly, if someone else is being so loud than he figures he should be able to match the tone.

And it turns out it doesn’t matter anyway, because it’s Taeyong.

“Good morning, Taeyong,” Donghyuck greets, sitting down at the counter next to where Taeyong is cutting watermelon into small cubes.

He hums a good morning back, and then looks at him with an eyebrow raised, “How long have you been up?”

Donghyuck shrugs, “A while.”

Taeyong places the last few cubes in a bowl that he pushes over to Donghyuck, “Weird, I didn’t hear you.”

He gratefully takes a piece of watermelon before replying, “Yeah, I can be pretty quiet when I want to be. Thank you, for the food.”

Taeyong shrugs, “It’s no problem, I usually make breakfast.”

Donghyuck shoves the watermelon in his mouth before answering him, “So, what’s today’s meal?”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Taeyong scolds, “I’m feeling lazy, I might just make eggs to go with this. People can get toast too if they want.”

Donghyuck swallows, “Sounds good to me.”

Taeyong nods, “Do you want me to make you some right now? No one’s going to be awake for awhile so you might have to wait to eat with everyone else. “

Donghyuck laughs a little, “What about all the other early risers? Johnny, Jaehyun, Jungwoo?”

“No one else it actually an early riser,” Taeyong admits, “They just made an effort because they wanted to that week.”

He looks down at his hands, feels a content warm pass over him. He’s unsure where that stands with him, how much effort that actually takes, but it’s enough to leave him flattered and happy to know it.

“I’ll eat if you eat with me,” Donghyuck looks up and chimes in a sing-song voice, relishing in the fact that he feels comfortable enough to start to let some of his teasing, his playfulness, come through unguarded.

Taeyong smiles, “Sure. I do mine sunny side up, that okay with you?”

Donghyuck nods, smiles back, takes more watermelon.

The silence is nice while the eggs are cooking. The light becomes more firm, more like day, in the time were the eggs sizzle on the grill. Donghyuck eats his way through way more than an acceptable share of watermelon in the stillness, his head resting on his arm. It’s only been a week, but he’s starting to get this whole morning person thing. He can see the appeal. The four hours of sleep start to nip at his eyes as Taeyong pulls out plates from the cupboard across the kitchen, and he finds his eyes slipping shut on the counter.

There’s the light clink of a plate being set in front of him, another tap that might be a glass of something, Donghyuck doesn’t know. He hears the stove being turned off, of the chair beside him being pulled out, the clink of silverware; but it’s all very quiet. It’s nice.

The door swings open on it’s own, and he creaks his eyes open at the same time Taeyong whispers a, “Good morning,” to Doyoung.

Doyoung eyes flick from him, to Taeyong, and back again, “Good morning,” he murmurs back, walking with light steps around Donghyuck and towards Taeyong.

Donghyuck sits up, yawns, pulls his eggs closer to him while Doyoung sits down.

“Did you sleep well?” Taeyong asks Doyoung, and he shrugs.

Taeyong rolls his eyes, “Good talk.”

Doyoung swats at Taeyong’s arm, and Taeyong swats back.

“Can I have the watermelon, Donghyuck-ah?” Doyoung asks quietly, and it gives away how short he’s been awake for.

Donghyuck pushes is across Taeyong and Doyoung pulls it to himself quickly. He takes a piece and eats it slowly, before turning to Taeyong and asking, “You going to cook for me?”

“You’re insufferable,” Taeyong fires back without missing a beat, “Don’t talk with your mouth full, you know better than that.”

Doyoung puts another piece in his mouth, chews it obnoxiously loud and over exaggerated. Donghyuck laughs before shoving a piece of eggs in his mouth, smacking it around himself and relishing in the way Taeyong rubs his eyes with disdain.

“You’re both insufferable, I was hoping you’d be better than this Donghyuck,” Taeyong says.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Donghyuck says.

Taeyong sighs, shoves the last of his eggs in his mouth before he stands up again. He drops his plate into the sink before he turns on the stove again. Wordlessly, grabbing the eggs and preparing them for Doyoung. Donghyuck takes another bite as Taeyong cracks one too hard against the countertop, the shell and yolk spreading across the granite.

“ _Shit_ ,” he mutters empathetically.

Doyoung gasps, as if horribly offended.

Taeyong looks up and stares into Doyoung’s eyes, no expression to be found anywhere on his face, completely unamused. It sends Donghyuck into giggles.

“Do you like each other at all?”

“No,” they reply in unison.

That’s when the door opens again, and Donghyuck looks over with a smile that freezes when he sees Mark. He hasn’t seen him since he’s moved in, a fact he finds both suspicious and somewhat hurtful. To make it worse, Mark barely looks at him once he steps into the room, his eyes immediately averting to Taeyong.

“Good morning,” he directs to him, and Donghyuck stills to watch this play out.

“Good morning, Mark,” Taeyong perks up, looks over to Donghyuck, “Hey, you and Jaehyun are going to be going out with Donghyuck tonight, okay?”

Mark tilts his head curiously, “No Johnny?”

Donghyuck tunes out of the conversation so fast it almost gives him whiplash, because more implications then he was willing to admit to come running at him at once. The main one being that if they go out in teams of three, and predetermined sets, then who’s spot was he taking last night? He doesn’t want to think about the word _replacement_ anymore, can’t afford to with the way it sets him down such a negative road, but he’s so sure he knows who’s spot was the first they decided to put him in.

He zones back in, his fork gripped much tighter in his hand than he has any recollection of.

“Do you want anything to eat?” Taeyong asks Mark.

And he can see it, he watches it happen, in that blink of an eye where Mark’s eyes flit to him and away again.

“No,” he says, already backing away, “I’m okay.”

And this whole morning just feels as though it dropped straight off, fell straight down.

Donghyuck looks down at the dark surface of his phone screen. Wishes still that things were somehow slightly different.

 

 

 

 

It almost goes without saying, but that night is much worse than the last.

Jaehyun is very kind, but it almost feels like he is leading him alone. They go to a different part of Neo City, one that is much farther above the ground, much further removed than anything he saw the day before. The people are so far away, it’s just them alone amongst a cloudy night sky.

Mark hardly speaks.

For the most part, they just walk along edges of rooftops and peer into the distance for disturbances that never arise. At lease Donghyuck still feels like he’s getting exercise with all this walking. The most exciting parts are when they step of ledges to move to the consequent rooftops. He isn’t used of flying yet, the drop of adrenaline every time is foot looses traction dozens of floors above the ground. It’s something special.

But it’s still unbearable. The moments where Jaehyun looks off into the distance and the conversation stalls. Where Donghyuck can feel the silence beside him. He’s not one to let petty things like this go. He won’t pretend to understand or empathize, he just knows that what’s happening here is not sustainable. If Mark doesn’t break soon, Donghyuck will smash this glass silence on his own, gleefully.

It’s just going to be a matter of time.

They arrive home late, because none of them particularly seem up to running at the end of it. Jaehyun asks him what he thinks as they open the second door that leads into their real home, and he’s unaware that the answer he gives will become so ironic so fast.

“I mean, it’s not really too hard of a task.”

“Yeah,” Jaehyun concedes, “This is what it’s like most of the time. When investigations ramp up it can be a bit tense, but for the moment you’re going to be getting a lot of the boring stuff.”

Mark steps inside first, and Donghyuck sighs, “That’s fine by me.”

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe, just maybe, Donghyuck’s specialty is jinxing things.

Because it has to be, at this rate.

He wakes up to his alarm at 6:55, even more tired than the day before. Maybe this isn’t sustainable, he should probably ask for some kind of leniency on the “patrolling every night” thing. They seem nice enough to give it.

None of these thoughts matter though, because a light and tinny alarm trills loudly from someplace out in the hall. He’s too sleepy to really put together what that means right away, even though it should be something so obvious from the get go.

Taeil, however springs up immediately from his bed. Donghyuck peers up at him with furrowed brows and he simply grabs his wrist and pulls him up and out of the room without hesitation.

“What’s going on?” Donghyuck asks, but as his mental functioning gets more and more awake, he’s beginning to think he knows.

“Somethings happening,” Taeil answers, “We need to head out.”  
They start running down the stairs, and Donghyuck whines, “And an alarm is how you’re informed of that? That’s so cliche.”

Taeil gives him a smile, but it’s tight and not what he’s used to. They make their way into the equipment room, and find Taeyong and Doyoung already inside. Doyoung’s attaching the last of his flight equipment as Taeyong is muttering to someone in his in-ear, a furrow to his brow that seems well worn in. Donghyuck starts changing as other roommates pile in, no one saying anything as they rush to put their things together.

It’s during this time where Donghyuck’s mind sinks into something that mingles with fear. They’re going to fight. For real. Something big enough to warrant calling a team of elite superheroes, the most elite superheroes. Which he was now a part of.

He reaches around to zip up his suit, but someone grabs it and pulls it up for him. He turns around and finds Johnny smiling down at him, a reassuring smile on his face.

“Don’t let your head get away from you,” he warns, “The more you think about it, the harder it will be. We’re a good team, it’s going to be fine.”

Donghyuck nods, squeezes his fists together.

“Come on, let’s go,” Taeyong calls, pushing people towards the door and glaring at Yuta, who stumbles along still trying to get one shoe on.

Donghyuck decides Johnny’s right, and he takes a deep breath to try and settle his anxiety. Worrying about it, letting it take over his mind, won’t change the fact that it’s happening, that there’s something bad happening out there that they need to stop. His hands shaking won’t change the present, calm procedures and a level head might.

As they sprint down the underground tunnel to get to their front door, Donghyuck remembers his phone on the bed upstairs. He hopes that Jaemin won’t worry too much.

 

 

 

 

 

There's urgency to the way they fly uptown.

Also, they fly uptown. That's really cool.

They move faster than Donghyuck is used to, tethers fly faster and they swoop through the streets with a fervor Donghyuck has only ever seen from them on TV screens. He adjusts quickly, much faster than he would give himself credit for, and begins to glide above crowds of people who squeal as they move past. It takes conscious effort on his part to not overtake Taeyong, because even though he would love to arrive at the scene as fast as possible, he doesn’t actually know where they’re going. Or what they’re doing.

They come to a stop on a rooftop across from a glass skyscraper that’s just familiar enough to rub Donghyuck the wrong way.

“What’s going on? Is this a robbery? What’s the sense in calling us to a bank?” Jungwoo pesters, kneeling down beside Taeyong.

Donghyuck’s face slackens in remembrance behind his mask. It’s the trade center.

“There’s a holdup inside,” Taeyong explains, “They don’t know much about the situation except that there’s still civilians inside and that there’s more people than your typical armed robbery.”

“Do we know what they’re armed with?” Jaehyun asks, but the world answers quickly.

A bolt of blue light soars through the window facing them, shattering the glass and causing Johnny behind him to drop to the ground.

“ _Fuck,_ are those the TS weapons?” Yuta asks, “How’d they even get their hands on them?”

Taeyong shrugs, and Donghyuck feels his stomach drop.

“What’s the plan?” Jaehyun says, leaning against the ledge of the rooftop.

“We don’t know how dispersed they are in the building, which makes this hard,” Taeyong sighs, “Separate them from their weapons, that’s the main priority after civilian safety. If they get away it’s fine as long as they don’t have the tech with them. Don’t be out in the open where they can hit you, the hit radius seems much bigger on these things than regular guns,” he pauses, trying to think of more to say.

“And have fun?” Johnny offers sarcastically. Donghyuck laughs, but he’s the only one.

“Sure, if that’s how you want to look at it,” Taeyong sighs.

And then he’s jumping off the roof, and they all follow.

Mark and Jungwoo go through the main entrance, the rest of them swing through other windows scattered throughout the building as a flurry of camera shutters call out behind them. As Donghyuck breaks through the glass far above any floor someone else landed on, he has the brief and fleeting hope that perhaps this won’t be as life threatening as it appears on the surface.

And then he rolls to break his landing, and immediately launches himself to the left to avoid being hit by a shot of blue heat that leaves a scorch on the ground.

Donghyuck looks up and makes eye contact with a man in a Balaclava and wide eyes that seem almost as frightened as he is. He holds the gun up, the barrel glowing, and shoots.

Donghyuck jumps up this time, using the hover in his hands to go high. He activates a tether from his wrist and aims it right behind the man, and abruptly winds it in to send him flying across the room.

He collides bodily with the man and sends the both of them sprawling across the floor. As the man sits up to reach for his weapon, Donghyuck launches himself across the floor to sweep his foot out and against his temple.

He goes out against the floor, so motionless it gives Donghyuck fear. Once he sees his chest rising, he moves to the gun, picking it up with nimble fingers. It’s hot to the touch, so much it almost burns. He looks around. Separating them from the weapon seems easy in theory, but where the hell do you put the gun? He spins around before seeing an open hallway and bowling the gun down it on it’s side. Just as someone steps out of the stairwell and into it’s path. With another gun.

“ _Fuck!_ ” Donghyuck yells, and takes off sprinting.

The man starts running as well, and his legs happen to be much longer than Donghyuck’s. He gains speed fast, faster than Donghyuck, and this really is much harder than any training Donghyuck has experienced up until this point.

Donghyuck jumps again, launching a tether into the far wall and winding it in quickly. He goes shooting down the hallway, angling near parallel to the floor so that his feet go first. This time when they collide, Donghyuck tumbles more onto his feet than his side, and he’s back to himself much faster than he did before. But there’s not time to think on that. He turns to the man also standing up, kicking the hand grasping the blue instrument. And again, and again. And then he spins, jumping, and kicking the guy to the ground before stomping on his wrist. As he feels it give way beneath his foot, the criminal screams and releases the weapon that Donghyuck kicks into a pile with the others.

He looks back to the man who is now cradling his injured hand close to his body, shaking. Seriously, what is he supposed to do with these people? Training really wasn’t realistic at all, you kicked the snot out of people and then they disappeared from the ring. Nothing like this.

Donghyuck grabs the functioning wrist and looks the guy dead in the eyes. He tears a piece of fabric from the long sleeve of the sweater he’s wearing and whips him around, manhandling his wrists together before tying them to each other and shoving him in the elevator. He hits the button for the first floor, hopes he gets there.

Donghyuck sprints around the perimeter of this office floor. Once he feels fairly certain its empty, he goes back to his point of entry and peers out the side of the building. He’s not sure where to go until he sees another beam of energy shoot out a few stories down. That seems like a good of a plan as any. He jumps.

He goes through the cracks the shot made and lands amidst Johnny, Jungwoo, and Mark. There’s a lot more people down here, and to Donghyuck’s horror he sees that despite their better efforts, they’re being herded into the middle of the room.

Mark and Jungwoo are fairly fine. With teleportation easy at hand, Jungwoo is constantly moving. He teleports behind someone who enters the conference room from a hallway and puts them in a chokehold before they can even contribute the fight. Mark barely changes his facial expressions as he calls a chair into his hands and uses it to club who he’s staring down over the head.

It’s Johnny that’s in trouble. He has a small bubble of water that he must’ve grabbed from a cooler or a tank somewhere a long time ago because it’s clearly drained of strength. He uses it to aim at people’s feet, and to worm it into people’s throats. He’s determined, but it’s in those few assessing seconds Donghyuck takes that he realizes in most cases, Johnny is in a very similar boat to the one he’s in right now.

And then he moves.  
Donghyuck darts forward, driving his elbow into the soft spot on the side of someone’s head, driving them down before they ever see him. He jumps over their falling body, using his hover to land on the shoulders of person next closest. They whip around, confused, and Donghyuck uses the motion to carry them to the ground.

He lands beside them and, before really thinking about it, kicks his legs out to send them into Mark who clubs them with the same chair.

Donghyuck pushes himself to his feet just as a man levels a gun at Johnny. Donghyuck jumps and on instinct (thinking of office chairs and high rises and vaults) grabs the bicep of the man with the gun and throws him out the window.

“ _Donghyuck!_ ” Johnny yells, and Mark lunges to the window, reaching out with his eyebrows furrowed.

Donghyuck runs up to his side, panting with horror and exertion at the thought of what he might have done. He sags, relieved to see Mark slowly lowering him to the ground with the power of his mind.

It’s so hard to breathe behind his mask, and he tears it off just to catch his breath. _If this is taking it easy,_ Donghyuck thinks, _I’m going to be dead before I ever get to the real shit_.

“Let’s go, this floors clear,” Johnny commands, walking towards the door with a light sprint, Mark and Jungwoo following close.

Donghyuck sighs, lifting his eyes from the ground where police swarm the man he threw. He takes a step to leave but gets caught, his eyes locking with a man across the street from the barricade. He’s got a camera and a mask that make him seem like a reporter, but something about the way he stares, how he doesn’t look away, it rubs Donghyuck wrong. He can’t find it in himself to move, and then it comes back to him.

He remembers being Jungwoo in that basement, feeling the world falling down above him and being stomped on by a villain no one had ever seen before.

And that’s him.

Donghyuck has been running on four hours of sleep, and has never been too fond of “thinking” anyways, so he’s jumping out of the window once all the pieces click together. He isn’t processing the consequences until the screams of the crowds reach his ears and his feet are touch the ground.

The man is running.

Donghyuck takes off sprinting down the alley he chooses. There’s no terminal wall, no place to attach a tether to, it’s just him and his feet, just like old times.

He gives chase for a good while, the pumping of his arms tiring him before his legs do. His breathing gets heavy and it’s becoming quickly apparent that this villain has more stamina than him. Donghyuck has never felt more unmatched in his life, and he just went through some pretty bad odds. It makes him run faster.

The man turns a corner far ahead of him, and Donghyuck turns right after. Then stops.

He’s gone.

Donghyuck takes a few more hesitant steps forward. Invisibility isn’t the most common specialty, but it’s far from unheard of. That’s what Donghyuck figures is going on here. So he braces himself for a leap, a punch, the thing that he won’t be able to anticipate, but it doesn’t come.

 _Damn it._ Donghyuck groans aloud. He can’t believe he lost him. He doesn’t want to believe he lost him. With defeat he turns, ready to go back and face whatever consequences might have risen from him leaving, but then he hears the screams.

He’s running again, this time beyond the alley and towards the street. He steps out and looks around, and is quick to spot the robbers making a getaway.

They don’t have any cash, but they do have weapons and there are so many more of them than Donghyuck would really like to face. He hears sirens in the distance, but something tells him that time is a limited resource and hey, he’s a superhero right? Isn’t this lack of police the whole schtick?

He sprints forward and towards them, roughly ten in number, but they just smile at his advance. The one in front carries a cannon so large it drags the ground, moaning at their loud escape. He lifts it, and for a terrifying moment Donghyuck thinks that it’s coming for him, that it really will be over that soon, but he swings it past him and signs for the apartment across the street.

Donghyuck realizes at the same time the gun goes off.

It’s a decision he doesn’t need to think about as he sees the overhang from the roof come crashing towards a teeming sidewalk. It’s them or the people on the ground, and the unspoken rule is that it will always be innocent people in the priority spot.

Donghyuck whips around, tethers to building side and _moves._ Most people are running out of the way regardless, but there’s a woman near the base who is not going to make it in time. He grabs her as the group of criminals sprints away, and when he zooms away from the falling rubble, they barely escape the dust. Both of them end up sprawled on the floor, and Donghyuck rolls onto his back to cough as he breathes in dust.

The sirens stop close by, and Donghyuck doesn’t have the energy to get up anymore. He feels as though he’s done most of his job, or at lease all that he can. Beside him, he feels the woman stir, and he’s relieved to know she’s okay. His eyes slip closed, just to avoid the settling dust from landing where he doesn’t want it. He sighs.

She moves closer, and Donghyuck’s stomach drops. He lefts his hand to his face to feel for his mask, and then remembers where he tore it off. So far away.

“Thank you,” she says empathetically, but even then she’s confused, “And, who are you?”

Donghyuck lightly bangs his head against the concrete, turns his face to the side. As if it will change anything.

_Fuck._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so for real, sorry about the wait. Hopefully it won't be this long ever again, but I think we all realize I've learned the hard way the risk of making promises. 
> 
> And also, thank you so much to everyone who comment and comes to say things in my cc. Every word means the world to me and during times where I was struggling to get the chance to come back to this work, they really helped lift me up. So thank you so much, they truly mean the world. 
> 
> And yeah! Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed this guy enough to justify how long he took lmao


	4. Persona

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You could make something entirely new of it, if you wanted.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> um. so. yeah. sorry.
> 
> OKAY so some things have changes with the tags and stuff but nothing really has in the story. i basically realized that i had alloted too much time for something and needed one less chapter and also that dotae and johnjae just weren't becoming prevalent at the rate i anticipated? so i felt bad keeping them in the tags when they hadn't even been explicitly developed yet. they are still in the story! i just felt guilt about keeping em tagged rip
> 
> also i edited out all the honorifics i had bc tbh its either all or nothing with those and i kept fucking them up so i figured i should probably just go nothing. it really doesn't affect all that much i swear.
> 
> and just, sorry again for the wait. thank you for reading. 
> 
> i hope you like it <3

_Growing up, Donghyuck had always been a good kid. A bit of a show off, sure, but only to make his parents proud._

_Donghyuck remembers coming home from school with high grades, with childhood art, with certificates of good behavior, and shoving it into his mom’s face so that she could smile down at him and tell him how well he had done. How fantastic he was._

_One of his earliest memories was of climbing the tree in the backyard. He challenged his mom to a race while his dad looked on with fond exasperation. They both launched up the tree at the same time, and his mom managed to get to the highest spot before he did. The look of fondness as she called down to him was one he’d never forget._

_“Nice try, Hyuckie,” she smiled from where she was, high above him, “Maybe one day you’ll be able to get up here too.”_

_And so he tried. He tried and he tried and he tried. As the leaves changed color and the skies turned cold he would go out into the backyard and climb that oak a little faster everyday. A little stronger everyday. And everyday, his mom would call him in with a warm smile._

_“Good job, Donghyuck,” she’d say, “You’re getting so strong, so fast, I barely recognize you anymore.”_

_It meant the world to a young kid, and he kept searching for more and more, kept trying harder and harder._

_So one day when it became so much easier, so much so that he began to laugh with elation as he reached the top, he had to show her what he could do._

_“Mommy!” he called, “Mommy come look!”_

_And she stepped outside, a wool jacket pulled around her arms, cold biting red onto her cheeks, smiling._

_“Show me, Hyuck,” she requested softly._

_And he did, bounding two steps before jumping high, grabbing onto a branch before launching up higher, taking the tree in bounds of strength instead of struggling. He sat on the top, his own pride soaring through, and looked to his mom for the validation he needed._

_It wasn’t there. He watched as that small aura of love she always kept hidden in the aging lines of her face slowly loosened. How her smile turned so neutral. It’s like the cold beyond his jacket pushed through to the inside. Whatever had just happened he wished he hadn’t done. Wished he could take it back. Do it over again._

_It was a mistake._

_It was a mistake._

_It was a mistake._

_IT WAS A MISTAKE—_

 

 

 

 

 

 

Donghyuck wakes up cold.

Sunlight across his face.

Alone.

He takes a deep breath in, and his body doesn’t ache nearly as much as it did the last time he opened his eyes. Silently, he tags that as a good thing.

Lifting his body off the bed is still hard, his limbs are still stiff and tender to the touch. Yesterday is going to be sticking around for awhile, that much is clear. Donghyuck reaches his arms up and stretches in the late morning heat, before grabbing his phone and opening up his recent calls, pressing the one that he knows he has to call first.

It hums for a long few seconds, but Donghyuck knows after yesterday that he’ll pick up.

“Donghyuck?” Jaemin answers in lieu of a hello or anything more mild, that shows less concern than the tone of his name conveys.

“Hi Jaemin,” he smiles, talking calmly, trying to deescalate where they’ve started.

Jaemin takes an audible deep breath, “How are you feeling?”

Donghyuck remembers a more distressing part of yesterday. Of being escorted up to a private infirmary to be checked over because he had, as the nurse said, a _rough landing_. And opening his phone to stacks of missed calls and a slew of panicked texts. Then a very long phone call in very low voices with this very boy before he was cleared to go home.

“I’m fine, just achey,” Donghyuck responds honestly, “I told you, it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. It was just tiring.”

Jaemin pauses, “It just looked so bad.”

Donghyuck reclines back onto his pillows, “Wait, how’d you see me? You didn’t tell me you could see me. I wasn’t even near the event when that happened.”

“A news van took off after you. You did jump out the front of the building.”

Donghyuck feels the cloying sense of dread in his chest, “How good of a shot was it?”

Jaemin’s voice is so gentle, “I could see it was someone new. I only knew it was you because I know you, but still.”

He rubs his eyes with a very small degree of forgiveness, “Fuck, that’s so much worse than I thought.”

“You knew someone had seen you though.”

“News is different, cameras are different.”

“I suppose,” Jaemin hums in a way that he’s used of feeling in his chest, in person, “It will be okay. It’s okay.”

Donghyuck sighs, “Does anyone else know?”

“Apparently, no one’s caught onto the new person being you.”

That’s some relief, “Okay, I’m glad.”

“Why don’t you want people to know? I know I’d never shut up about being put in a superhero group,” Jaemin jokes.

Donghyuck gives him a sarcastic laugh back, before sobering, “I don’t like the idea of it changing yet. I don’t like everyone being able to say bye to me before I’ve let go of them.”

“You haven’t settled yet?”

Sadness is such an audible tone in his response, “It’s so different, I got sprung into a fight on the third day, Jaemin there hasn’t been the _time_.”

There’s a pause where he knows his boyfriend is thinking of what to say, what’s the right thing to say. So he spills the other thing on his mind, just to make it a little bit easier.

“And I miss you so much.”

“ _Imissyoutoo_ ,” Donghyuck lets out a sharp laugh because it comes out so rushed he’s sure Jaemin didn’t even think about it, “Donghyuck, holy shit, in case it wasn’t obvious from me crying on the phone yesterday, I miss you so much.”

Donghyuck smiles into the phone, glad Jaemin was willing to let go internal struggles for something a little more easy if not a little more heart wrenching, “Can I see you this weekend?”

“In what scenario would I say no?”

“You should have a life outside of your partner, Na Jaemin,” Donghyuck scolds playfully.

“Hm, well seeing as I haven’t seen him in almost two weeks,” and Donghyuck feels his smile fall, it’s been too long, “I’m willing to go a little out of my way.”

“Can we plan on breakfast then? Where we always go.”

“Of course baby, and I’ll pay.”

Donghyuck flushes, jokes back, “What a gentleman.”

“When am I not?”

Donghyuck laughs into the phone, and Jaemin mimics it playfully, only making him laugh more.

“Am I holding you up?” Jaemin asks, and Donghyuck almost wants to say he’s self conscious.

He hums, “No idea.”

“Go see what’s up, okay? Call me back if you’re free.”

“Why? I can just stay with you, I don’t care if I’m missing something.”

Jaemin’s quiet is loud, and Donghyuck sits up with the realization that he’s concerned about keeping him on the phone.

“I don’t want you to miss anything important, I’m sure the day after has a lot of debriefing, especially for you.”

“Jaemin,” Donghyuck tells, and he hopes the sternness in his voice comes across as honesty, “you’re just as important as any of that. If I’m speaking just for myself, you’re more important than anything they could need to say.”

He hears him shuffle across the line, “Just go check for me, please? I don’t want to be thinking about it.”

“I will,” Donghyuck reassures, “but I’m going to be right back. You’ll see it wasn’t even worth asking.”

Jaemin laughs, as if Donghyuck wouldn’t be able to tell it was fake, and says, “Alright, I’ll be waiting eagerly.”

“You best be!” Donghyuck declares haughtily.

“Hey babe?”

And he’s glad he can hear the smile, know that there’s something happy in that sentence, “Oh no,” he answers.

“I love you more than anything.”

“I’m hanging up now.”

“I love _you_.”

“Bye, Jaemin.”

“Say it back!”

And Donghyuck laughs, hangs up. Only because he knows he’ll be calling back soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Donghyuck comes downstairs, it’s a bit too late into the morning for it to truly be called such comfortably. However, Doyoung still has pancakes out on the counter. He slides Donghyuck a plate when he walks into the kitchen, right past Mark and Taeil chilling on the sofa and all the tension he doesn’t want to initiate.

“Where is everyone?” Donghyuck asks Doyoung, “It’s pretty late, isn’t it?”

“Jaehyun and Jungwoo went to review some footage from yesterday at SM,” Doyoung replies, taking a lukewarm pancake for himself, “Yuta is asleep, Mark and Taeil got up around when I did. Taeyong and Johnny are at a press conference.”

“About yesterday?” Donghyuck pours maples syrup over his own, a copious amount, before rolling it up and shoving it into his mouth.

“I hate that,” Doyoung states plainly.

“I’m sorry,” Donghyuck says, not.

Doyoung looks at him. Sighs. Then answers, “Yeah for yesterday, they’re the people we usually send.”

“They’re good at talking.”

“Also kind of calming,” Doyoung adds, “they don’t aggravate easily. They’re good for when people get mad at the damage.”

Donghyuck nods, and then they go to eating in silence. He tries to power through his food, because he needs to eat but he also needs to, _needs to_ , call Jaemin back. He feels like something very delicate that he doesn’t quite understand balances on the minutes between him hanging up and him picking up again.

He steps out once he’s done, and sees that Taeil and Mark are watching the press conference on their TV. Taeil looks up at him with a warm smile, while Mark’s eyes stay glued to the screen.

“They’re about to finish up, I think” Taeil comments, “It’s going fine.”

“I’m glad,” he says honestly, looking at the screen as he passes by.

“ _One last question,_ ” Taeyong declares, Johnny nodding beside him.

A man with greasy brown hair and a disheveled suit pushes his mic forward, and like some sort of sick and powerful premonition, Donghyuck knows that this is the one that doesn’t end well. This is the one where things take a turn into the tragedy, the scandal.

Shit hits the fan like this, “ _Can you please explain the presence of the new member in your roster?_ ”

To Taeyong’s credit, he lives up to Doyoung’s word, barely gives an inch, “ _I’m sorry, what you’re talking about is unsubstantiated-_ ”

“ _Where is Winwin? Why are there strangers flying around our city?_ ” he pushes on, despite the security force marching towards them.

“ _We’re done taking questions,_ ” Johnny says after someone much more professional than him whispers in his ear.

“ _Explain why you think it’s proper to give control of our safety to someone we don’t know we can trust!_ ” is the last think called before the screen goes back to a newsroom.

Taeil turns to look at him, but he’s already sprinting up the stairs. As fast as he can.

Donghyuck slams his door shut. Slides down its closed surface. Waits until he’s breathing right to call Jaemin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taeil does eventually manage to drag him from his room in the early afternoon, not willing to let him sulk for much longer. Donghyuck fights him the whole way down, whining playfully to cover up the very real pit of anxiety in his stomach. Coming face to face with Taeyong at the bottom of the stairs surely doesn’t help.

Taeil wanders to the couch while Donghyuck is left standing. His new leader’s eyes are big and focused, surely meant to be comforting, but their expression only make it harder to meet them.

“You’re fine,” is how Taeyong chooses to start this conversation, which is an immediate tell that he’s not.

“Really?” Donghyuck asks, perhaps a little too meanly, “because it seems like I fucked up and revealed my identity a little too early.”

Taeyong shakes his head, “But no one’s mad at you, the response hasn’t been too bad.”

Donghyuck eyebrows shoots up as quickly as his response flies out, “I saw the interview.”

Taeyong’s own brow’s furrow, “Taeil told me you were asleep.”

“Yeah, _well_ ,” and the tone of his voice climbs against his will, “Taeil seems like the type of guy that lies about a lot of things.”

“ _Hey!”_ Taeil calls from the couch as Taeyong just stares him down.

“I did see the end, at least,” Donghyuck confesses.

Taeyong rubs his eyes, “I guess that would be enough.”  
Donghyuck nods, rocks back on his heels and squeezes his hands together to stop the way they stutter.

“It’s not that bad, you really are fine,” Taeyong assures him, “All things considered, it could be much worse. If anything, there’s just a general confusion. I don’t think there’s going to be any riots.”

“Is that how low the bar is?” Donghyuck jokes, but is it?

“No, _no_ ,” Taeyong is quick to wave that thought off, “I’m serious, you’re fine. A little damage control and things will be as they should be.”

“Damage control?”

Taeyong shakes his head, squints his eyes shut and Donghyuck feels bad for the second hand stress he’s imparting on him. He probably has a fair share of it himself.

“We’re just moving up your introduction. Super Management has already cleared a talk show to get you on, we’ve got the interview questions and everything already. We just need to figure out how you want to present yourself. Get you comfortable with the questions they’ll ask, all that kind of stuff.”

Donghyuck forces himself to keep meeting Taeyong’s eyes, “Is that all?”

“Yeah, we’re just gonna keep you inside and away from anyone who’s gonna try to make this into a bigger deal than it is,” Taeyong reaches out and runs his hand across his arm, but quickly withdraws when Donghyuck only stiffens, “And tomorrow morning we’re going to have a meeting with some SM officials, just so you can get your story straight and talk to them about what comes with being officially in the limelight.”

Donghyuck nods, and Taeyong tries to smile at him.

“It’s okay,” he tries to tell Donghyuck, “They picked a morning show, it’s one of the ones stay at home moms watch, it’s going to be as tame as it can be.”

He wants to respond with something witty, a little snarky, _have you heard the way stay at home moms talk about other people?_ but he’s interrupted by Mark coming down the stairs, staring at his phone and uncaring of who’s at the bottom of the stairs.

“Mark!” Taeyong calls, and he quickly looks up at them. Again, he does that thing, that stupid thing that makes Donghyuck’s hands clench reflexively. His eyes flick to Donghyuck, quick enough to miss, and then focus solely on Taeyong.

To think he had thought they had started off on the right step last week. Damn, _last week_. He rubs his eyes as Taeyong says something to make Mark take reluctant steps forward, it’s been a long fucking week.

“Mark’s great with cameras,” he says, to Donghyuck this time, but then he’s turning back to Mark, “Nation’s sweetheart and all that. He could help you, right?”

Mark, to his credit (Donghyuck doesn’t think he’s intentionally so blatantly uncaring, but he is stupid enough to not bother to hide it), tries to be polite, come up with an excuse. He flounders for a second, stuttering on his words, and there it is again, the flick of the eyes.

“You know what?” Donghyuck declares, a little meanly (and unlike Mark, it’s entirely intentional), “Don’t worry about it, Taeil can help me.”

Mark’s eyes are a little wide, and a little hurt. And Taeyong, his eyes are open too, but he just looks surprised, a little shocked at what he perceives to be Donghyuck’s change in tone.

The atmosphere is not one Donghyuck enjoys.

“Right, Taeil?” He calls over his shoulder, looking at him on the couch.

Unlike Taeyong, he just looks a little calculating, perhaps concerned.

“Uh, yeah,” he responds, it sounds taken aback, but not as though he’s turned away by the way Donghyuck pivoted to him, “Of course I can.”

Donghyuck looks back to the two of them, and forces Mark to look away with his intense stare, “So it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

Mark nods, while Taeyong simply glances between the two of them, concern obviously radiating. And then, without a word, Mark turns around. Heading back upstairs instead of continuing to wherever he was heading before.

Taeyong looks like he’s about to ask Donghyuck something, which is just about the last thing Donghyuck wants at that particular moment, so he pivots abruptly back to Taeil who’s still watching with a much less intimidating intensity.

“Taeil! We should watch a movie, I’m in the mood for Disney.”

He leaves Taeyong without a word, and Taeil immediately makes room for him without question. Donghyuck can tell that he also wants to ask, to say something about the odd tension that Donghyuck knows has been there between them and is just now is being thrown into other people’s faces. But that’s something about Taeil that he’s growing to like, he knows when not to push farther. He gives Donghyuck the perfect amount of mental space, and it’s something he’s going to indulge in as he leans heavily into his physical space to hide from Taeyong’s critical gaze.

Doyoung comes in from their closed in porch just then, and whatever question he asks Taeyong is enough to get him off of Donghyuck. Taeil starts some movie, Donghyuck wasn’t paying attention to his selection, and the change of tension lets him slowly breathe out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

His morning starts with a confession to Jaemin that, indeed, he was going to be at Super Management that day. And, yes, if he can come see him, he will.

Johnny’s knocking on his door soon after. He, Jaehyun, and Taeyong are escorting him to his meeting. Taeil went on patrol the night before, and he’s sure that’s the only reason he didn’t advocate to come too.

They told him to dress dark, be able to cover his face. So he’s in Jaemin’s hoodie and a pair of loose sweatpants, the mask given to him when he moved in tucked into his pocket. Like that, they walk him down the stairs and to the door. Johnny unlocks the door, humming some nonsense melody. Mark is sitting on the couch, looking over the back to look at Donghyuck, directly. It unnerves him a little, especially since he hasn’t made eye contact with Mark since they met again as 127 team members. He doesn’t look back, doesn’t crave the disappointment of him looking away or the tenseness of a stare off.

The door clicks, and they head down into the tunnel.

Donghyuck gets himself together as they walk. The straps of the mask tuck behind his ears and he pulls the hood up, and he combs his brown hair into his face as much as possible. When they pop out, he feels a little stifled and a little blind, but he just keeps his head down and walks out of the house, down to the waiting car.

Taeyong hops in shotgun, and Donghyuck opens the door to get in the back. Before he can, Johnny taps him on the back, and he turns around. He tilts his head up to make eye contact, and Johnny smiles down at him.

“You okay?” he asks.

Donghyuck shrugs, “A little nervous,” the mask muffles his words the slightest bit.

“Don’t be,” Johnny assures, “You’ll be fine.”

Then he pats him on the arm, and Donghyuck takes that as his cue to duck back down and get in the car.

The drive is quiet except for the soft notes of lo-fi that Taeyong’s playing through the aux. He fiddles with his phone for the whole time. No one from his old team is available to talk. It’s a Thursday, early morning. They’re all training. This is the time he’s cursed their space the most in the past two weeks. He needs to be talked to, but they’re not here and he’s not sure how to initiate it with the people in this car. So he sits. Quiet. Until they pull into the basement of Super Management. There’s a woman he’s never seen before waiting for their car. Taeyong gets out first, and when she smiles at him it become apparent that this is just Boah, hiding in plain sight.

They all hop out of the car, and she glances over them all, “Good morning, Team 127,” she says in a voice that’s foreign, but he thinks that he may be starting to recognize the cadence of her words as her own, “I’ll be escorting you upstairs, come with me.”

She walks ahead of them and her new blond hair sways as she leads them into the white, hidden hallways that lead to the elevator. As the doors slip shut, she lets her image fall back to herself. Donghyuck can’t help but smile at her.

She smiles back, “How are you, Donghyuck?”

“A little stressed,” he jokes, his voice small and playful. He hears Jaehyun scoff in the background.

Boah rolls her eyes, “You’re taking it well, it seems?”

He smiles at her again, but this time it’s tight, saying everything without a word. He looks away quickly.

“Hey, really don’t worry, Donghyuck,” she calls him, and he looks back at her again, “It’s just going to be me and President Sooman talking with you, no one else you’ve got to worry about.”

Taeyong turns around at that, “I was told Mrs. Park was going to be there to.”

Donghyuck’s eyes go back to his feet at that. His last impression, her anger at him even being included, at the front of his mind. He doesn’t mind that somethings changed with that plan.

“It has been determined that she shouldn’t be involved in discussions involving Donghyuck just yet,” her voice is tense as well, uncaring of what her carelessly selected words reveal.

It draws his eyes back up, and the furrow of her brow makes him remember she was there too, that she even knows more of what she said than Donghyuck does. That she was mad at that time too, at this adult who couldn’t care to treat Donghyuck with respect when he was not around.

Johnny and Jaehyun look confused, but the elevator opens before the conversation can continue. Its the floor Donghyuck was taken to when they told him of their plans for him. He takes a heavy breath as that memory comes to the front of his mind. They all step out, it’s much more bustling than it was then, yet none of them seem phased by the group of superheroes walking through. Donghyuck wonders what these people even do.

Jaehyun leans over to answer before he can ask, “Marketing.”

He nods. Makes sense. He guesses.

They walk up to the same closed off office he met the president in last time. He starts to wonder why he doesn’t go for the high rise corner office, but the thought is cut off by slow and purposeful steps in their direction. Boah groans, and Donghyuck looks away as fast as he looked up.

“Taeyong,” Mrs. Park says, stepping calmly and firmly ignoring the rest of them, ignoring him, “Can I have a word with you, for a second,” it doesn’t sound like a question.

“I’m here to escort Donghyuck to his meeting,” Taeyong says, not mean, but more unkind than Donghyuck is used to hearing from him, “I can’t right now.”

“Well it seems to me that there’s three of you here and I only need to speak to one,” Donghyuck remembers her being a little cold, but he doesn’t know if he forgot all of this or if it just wasn’t there before, “so I think you can spare a second.”

Taeyong is too quick to please, he turns to Donghyuck, “Will you be alright without me?”

Donghyuck, on the other hand, is not opposed to shooting down unwarranted meanness, cruelness. He doesn’t understand her problem or why she needs Taeyong at this particular moment, but her easy assertion of superior need without care for them rubs him so wrong. And he’s about to let her know, shoot her down, but then—

She looks at him.

It’s a lot like how his family used to look at him. Cold. Uncaring. Like they couldn’t wait for him to leave the room.

And he doesn’t do it, “I’ll be fine, Taeyong,” and he looks away, so she’ll look away.

Why won’t she look away.

“Alright, where can we speak?” And Taeyong starts to walk away, Mrs. Park following, but only after taking a moment to just stare him down.

He just can’t keep a good mood. It’s just impossible these days.

“God, something crawled up her ass and died since I’ve last seen her,” Johnny comments.

Boah sighs, “You’re telling me. It’s like working with kids again. She’s not my favorite coworker right now.”

She shakes her head as she pushes open the door to Sooman’s office. He feels his posture square as they step inside.

Meeting him for the second time is no less intimidating. The president stands to meet him, and it’s a gesture that sets him at ease as much as it tenses him up. He’s a good man, he thinks, but he’s also so much more important than Donghyuck could ever hope to be. He beckons them to a seat, but Boah stays standing.

The soft tapping of typing outside is the only noise that fills the void for a second, and then the president speaks.

“So,” he says, “I’m sure you know why you’re here.”

It’s so painfully cliche to Donghyuck, he will _not_ laugh, “I made a mistake, and it got my addition revealed early.”

Sooman nods, but with ease and not vigor, it’s not aggressive, “You did, but by no means was it something you should be lamenting over. Taking off the mask wasn’t your best move, but heat of the moment decisions rarely are. It’s nothing but a mild inconvenience to us. We still have the upper hand of your actual identity, and your decision to leave the trade center saved lives and got us some fantastic information.”

He’s reluctant to ask, “It did?” he thought he was in much deeper shit than he was making it sound.

Beside him, Jaehyun nods, and turns to face him more fully, “Yesterday, when Jungwoo and I were going over footage, we got the stuff from your suit and compared it to what Jungwoo saw on the day of the TS Labs collapse. The guy you chased was the same guy that was there,” he pauses, “That’s what you thought, right?”

Donghyuck nods, and something in his chest loosens. He’s glad he was right. He’s glad that he didn’t go off chasing after nothing.

“Also,” Boah interjects and Donghyuck turns back to her, “You gave us a good hint as to what his specialty might be. It seems like invisibility, don’t you think?”

“Yes, yes that’s what I was thinking,” he leans forward, thinking back to two days ago as he speaks, “I was surprised when he didn’t use it to attack then, because he had such a clear advantage. I think maybe he was just there to observe how we reacted to the stolen weapons, which if anything is scarier.”

She inclines her head, “Yes, because it implies that they’ll be used again. We need to figure out who he is and how he got access to TS and if he had anything to do with the buildings collapse.”

“And if he has the experiments,” Jaehyun adds.

Everyone goes silent. As if they hadn’t thought of that.

“Wait,” Donghyuck doesn’t want to be obviously out of his league, but he is, “What experiments? The guns?”

“The monsters,” Johnny answers, “We only captured one, and it self destructed in captivity. There should have been more, Vision gave us an estimate of at least twelve of them. That puts eleven as missing.”

Well thats swell. There’s eleven missing monsters in the Neo City somewhere. He’s sure that’ll end well.

Sooman is smiling though, and when Donghyuck meets his eyes, he seems a little proud.

“Enough of that, we’re saving the investigating for once we have more information, that’s not what we’re here to discuss,” he nods at Donghyuck, “Though that was good insight, Donghyuck, I’m impressed.”

His ears always blush before his cheeks. He hopes no one else is noticing that right now. Seeing as they are heating quite rapidly.

“Thank you,” is all he says, and he tries to smile in a way that doesn’t give away how stupidly happy he is at the compliment.

“Of course, it’s deserved,” he adds, “Now, on to your image. We booked a morning interview for you this coming Monday, which gives you about two full days to prepare. I hope that’s enough time?”

Uh, “I can make it work,” Donghyuck assures him.

Sooman nods, again with the smile that makes his face heat, “Good to hear. Now, I wanted to discuss with you the matter of your persona.”

He tilts his head.

Johnny fills in the blank, “How you want to present yourself, who you want to be.”

Jaehyun adds too, “You could make something entirely new of it, if you wanted.”

Donghyuck, well, Donghyuck hadn’t thought about that. He figured he would just be walking out on Monday morning, a little nervous, decked in his suit, trying to field off any questions they might have. As himself. He didn’t factor in any of the, you know, superhero stuff.

He looks at the sweet mellow pink of Jaehyun’s hair, the sharpness of Johnny’s own dark hair. They look styled, even on days like today where he knows they rolled out of bed like he did. He thinks of how Winwin goes by a name that isn’t his own, how Mark and Johnny are always referred to by English names despite that not being the language of the where they live. About all the small things that make them seem put together, larger than life when you see them on screen.

Donghyuck didn’t ever place himself in any of that.

“We have an appointment with the stylist we use for all of our other heroes on Sunday evening,” Boah states, breaking his thought and drawing him to her calming gaze, “You don’t need to do anything different, but I know I like the distance some of this gave me. The colors, the names, the style; it helps you feel separate from the identity everyone else is going to latch onto.”

He nods. That does make sense. All of the information about who he really is, beyond the stranger that was reported to be at the robbery, will come out eventually. But it is tasteful to, most news organizations and gossip rags do, refer to superheroes by chosen names and with images of them on the job.

More so than understands, he thinks he wants that.

Sooman takes his attention this time, “You can definitely think about it, what you want to do and not do. However,” and he smiles, “if you wanted a new name, since the moment you began to shine amongst the rest, we’ve had a name that suits you well.”

And he says it.

Donghyuck won’t deny that it warms him from the inside out. A compliment wrapped in a name, _full of sun_. He’s not sure if that’s him.

Though, he does wish it was.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They come out of the meeting a little while later, a few set plans, the list of approved questions in hand, and the name still up in the air. For all he worried, it was much less stress than Donghyuck had thought it would be. Boah splits off from them once they step out, but not before giving all of them quick hugs. He feels so much better now. Like everything is going alright. They have a plan, all they need to do is execute.

Only one thing left to make the day better.

He has his I.D on hand. He checks the time on his phone, there’s a break in the trainees’ schedule right now. The superheroes have nothing else set to do today, at least that Donghyuck is privy to.

“Can you see where Mrs. Park led Taeyong?” Johnny asks, and both him and Jaehyun cast their gaze around the floor.

Perfect opportunity. Donghyuck starts away, turning and taking the first step of a run.

Johnny clotheslines him.

Donghyuck chokes for a brief second, and he hears Jaehyun cackle behind him at the unflattering sound. As soon as he’s free, he’s glaring up at Johnny and pulling against the hand he keeps wrapped around his forearm.

“Oh no no,” Johnny is smiling mischievously down at him, but there’s an edge of seriousness in the tone of his voice, “I know what you’re doing and it’s a recipe for trouble.”

“Come on,” Donghyuck begs, “aren’t I in deep enough shit? This doesn’t change anything.”

Johnny doesn’t let go, instead his eyes seem to try and implore him to think a little more, but Donghyuck believes he’s thought the perfect amount about it, and quite frankly he doesn’t really think seeing it from Johnny’s perspective would be all to enlightening to his decision making process.

He pulls his arm again, but he knows it won’t achieve anything unless the stronger hero lets him go. It’s fruitless, but it was more to make him feel like he was fighting back than to really achieve anything.

“What’s going on here?” Taeyong interjects, walking out from a small break of people, Mrs. Park nowhere in sight.

“Can I go see them?” Donghyuck asks calmly, but hopes Taeyong grasps the implied pleading.

His leader tilts his head, “Your friends?”

“ _Yes_ , please?” Donghyuck asks, “I haven’t gotten to see them since I’ve moved out and I really miss them.”

Taeyong looks at him with the typical sad eyes he gives Donghyuck, and he knows that he’s not going to let him go. Johnny holds strong when he gives another futile pull and this stupid feeling of uncaring pity that they’re giving off is starting to crawl under his skin, raising hairs on his arms and making the pulse of his heart feel like a marching drum from the tips of his fingers to the temples of his head. It’s as if these new teammates are standing close on all sides; he has nowhere to move, he wants to scream. They think he doesn’t understand, doesn’t know what he’s asking for. But he gets it. He does. He’s not _fucking_ stupid.

Johnny’s grip tightens, Taeyong starts, “I’m sorry, Donghyuck—“

Donghyuck snaps towards Johnny, “Could you _let go_ of my arm, maybe?”

And it goes very quiet.

 _Thump, thump, thump_ , his whole body moves with the violence of those heartbeats. He takes a deep breath in, and tries not to be swayed by that motion. Another, and another. He looks up.

“I’m not going anywhere, just let me go, please,” he feels so silly, so misunderstood.

Johnny lets go of his arm, and he looks a little guilty himself. He doesn’t say an apology, and Donghyuck doesn’t know if he needs one or not. Doesn’t matter, he supposes.

“Well then let’s just go, I don’t want to be here if I have to keep missing them,” Donghyuck declares softly, suddenly wanting to be very, very alone.

Taeyong looks as though he’s going to apologize again, but thinks better of it. He stinks of concern, it’s all over his body. It has been since he snapped at Mark, truthfully. Everyone’s quiet. Artfully, Donghyuck’s killed the mood again.

He almost laughs at that somber thought. A good mood soured for, really, how many times in the past few days? God, he’s a professional at this point.

“Okay,” and Taeyong’s quiet too, “Then let’s hurry, marketing always has the worst atmosphere.”

Johnny and Jaehyun walk away quickly, and Taeyong stays next to him as they walk. He isn’t sure if he appreciates the awkward attempt at being by his side. There’s an aborted attempt on Taeyong’s behalf to reach out and lay a comforting touch to his back. Donghyuck walks fast, and he matches step to the elevator.

But then.

“ _Lee Donghyuck!_ ” it’s angry, enraged really.

All four of them whip to look behind them, the floor quiets at the rage before both Johnny and Jaehyun crowd him from behind when they see Mrs. Park walking from across the floor.

She’s staring at him as she marches, tablet in hand and that same cold upset in her eyes. He’s frozen. The mood was already bad, how can the day really decide to make it _worse_.

“What could you possibly want?” Taeyong responds and _wow_ , something awful must have happened in that talk because Donghyuck could not have imagined the tone of that question coming from Taeyong’s mouth.

She flips the tablet around and he sees that it’s an article from some mid-tier news site. The headline, _BREAKING! Team 127’s New Member Revealed?_ and there’s a picture of him, taken from some high standing building or overlook, from this morning. It must’ve been taken in those few seconds where Johnny was comforting him before he got in the car. It’s a clear view of the upper half of his face, which shouldn’t be incriminating, no one should know him just from that. However, the caption gives is away.

 _Lee Donghyuck, 20, as identified by an inside source_.

He looks up, feeling the plan he just got go out the window, all the calm leaving him in the single breath he takes. Donghyuck looks back up at Mrs. Park, and immediately the fear makes him wish he had done anything but that.

“How could you let this happen?” she hisses directly and violently into his face.

But that’s all that she gets to say. He’s grabbed for the second time, but this time it is protective and not restrictive. Taeyong is leading him away with harsh steps and a firm arm around his shoulders before he could even think of some sort of answer.

“Taeyong! We need to discuss this!” she’s yelling, screaming.

It’s so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. He’s so ashamed that everyone on the floor can hear this happening. They’ll all think he’s a failure.

They step into the elevator, and Taeyong slams the key for the bottom floor three violent times, and then holds the close door with intensity and a glare in the direction he assumes his old teacher is. He won’t look to find out.

The doors close, and Taeyong whispers, “No fucking way. Not after the shit she’s been saying.”

His heart drops. It’s all about him, he knows.

“What the fuck is going on?” Jaehyun sounds genuinely confused.

“I don’t know,” Taeyong confesses, “But for whatever reason, she’s decided she has a real problem with Donghyuck actually making it through training. And as long as she has that mindset, I am not letting her speak to him again.”

His heart warms a bit at the sentiment, but it’s a losing fight against the cold shaking that he’s barely holding down. It’s oppressive, all consuming, but as he looks at the elevator buttons, he knows where the answer is.

If he lunged forward and pressed the button for their floor now, they would have no choice but to at least let the door open before it slammed shut again. He could force it, at least get a glimpse at the people he knows, especially his friends, his family.

But it’s that fear that grips his hands tight. Keeps them occupied. Seeing them would make Donghyuck feel so much better, but if he’s the cause of one more thing not going the way people want, he’s going to freeze so fully that he won’t ever move again.

So he stays still. Let’s the elevator carry most of him to the bottom. His heart stays stuck in the moments he watches the numbers by the door pass the training floor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

He and Taeil are curled up on the couch, practicing interview questions in the early span of Saturday morning. They’re not too bad, along the lines of who he is, where he comes from, what he felt when he was told he’d be a hero. They’re joking around with it really, answering them jokingly more than anything else.

It gets him thinking as to why he appreciates Taeil so much. They don’t get much time to talk about anything deep or even the more trivial facts that make up the basic pictures of who they are. But still, he’s someone that Donghyuck clicks so easily with. He’s there when Donghyuck needs to laugh, to ask about the routines he’s uncertain of, to do dumb shit like practice interview questions. But he’s also gone when Donghyuck needs him gone. Like last night. When he got home from Super Management. And Taeil just gave him a long hug. Then left the room.

“So, what made you want to be a hero in the first place?” Taeil asks him pretending to be very serious, and Donghyuck giggles before humming as though he’s thinking.

“You know, Taeil, ever since a local super kid rescued both me and my cat from a tree we were stuck in, I couldn’t think of any other future for myself,” Taeil snickers, and Donghyuck continues, “I just thought that the cool indifference of that twelve year old as they tried to remove my sobbing self from their arm was too awesome to really pass up.”

“Is any of that true?” Taeil asks.

Donghyuck giggles, “Of course not.”

They both smile for a second before Taeil raises his eyebrows, silently asking him to really answer the question. Donghyuck taps his fingers together, wiggling his eyebrows at Taeil before lightheartedly replying.

“Well, I just like the idea of being able to help the community,” it’s the truth, if a mild one, “Being able to work with a team of people I respect to make the world safer, it’s something noble and respectable. Ever since I saw Girls’ Generation in their prime, I’ve thought they were the coolest people around. I wished I could be that amazing. So, that was always my goal.”

Taeil smiles, “I like that. Wouldn’t have pinned you for a Girls’ Generation fan though.”

Donghyuck shrugs, “Aren’t we all?”

But it’s also that hearing people talk about Girls’ Generation, or any of the hero groups, was the only time he heard supers talked about with respect and not disgust. He wanted that so badly. He wants that so badly.

The stairs creak from behind them, and they both turn to see Yuta walking down the stairs.

“Good morning!” Yuta says, as enthusiastic as a greeting uttered around a yawn can really be.

“Good morning, Yuta,” Donghyuck says and Taeil gives a small wave.

He comes down to pick up the remote and turn on the TV before throwing it across the room and walking into the kitchen, presumably for breakfast. It stays on some random news channel. Currently it’s weather, overcast and cool, and the old balding man speaking about it has a soothing voice that he lingers on before looking back to Taeil. He’s about to ask for the next question from him when Yuta comes back, bowl of cereal in hand.

“Not gonna wait for someone to make something hot?” Taeil teases.

Yuta flops across the empty couch beside theirs, “Nope. Hungry now.”

“Don’t get milk on the couch, I think Doyoung would kill you,” Donghyuck warns.

“Eh, probably,” Yuta shrugs, “but Mark’s passed out on the counter in there and I’m a professional at eating while horizontal.”

It knocks a laugh out of Donghyuck, and he does his best not to dwell on the mention of Mark.

He looks over at Taeil for the next question, but the TV interrupts him.

“ _And now, and exclusive update on the controversy surrounding Team 127’s unannounced new addition!_ ”

Donghyuck freezes and so does Taeil.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Yuta enunciates, “Where’d I throw that remote, let me turn it off.”

As he scrambles, gracelessly but miraculously setting his cereal in the coffee table, two things Donghyuck would rather not happen, happen.

The TV continues on to the story. Mark walks out of the kitchen.

The footage switches to a street reporter being recorded by some shaky camerawork. Donghyuck squints at the street he’s on, because it’s ringing bells, but then the camera pivots and it’s much worse than Donghyuck could imagine. It’s now just a microphone. And his mother.

“ _Thank you for speaking with us, Mrs. Lee,_ ” he hasn’t seen her in years, not since he left home, and she looks reluctant and distasteful. He’s not sure how voluntary this interview is.

“Yuta,” Taeil softly commands from across the couch, but he hasn’t found the remote yet.

“ _We were wondering if you could talk with us about your son, Lee Donghyuck?_ ”

He watches the defenses go up in her eyes, how they stiffen and the corners of her mouth sharpen into something familiar. It’s how he remembers her in the end. She’s older, her hair’s shorter, but this is the expression he tries to forget every time he wants to remember the good parts of his childhood.

“ _I don’t have a son by that name_ ,” she says, turning away from the camera violently, and her voice is so the same, it breaks his heart.

Donghyuck tries to escape the view and his eyes jump to Mark, who looks surprisingly upset. Like it’s personal. He can’t take that either, he desperately jumps to Taeil, who’s still looking at Yuta with the kind of politely insistent demand that only he could have.

Finally he hears the click of the image cutting out. They are all still.

“How could she say that? What the fuck does that even mean?” Yuta exclaims.

And when Donghyuck turns to look at him, he’s looking back, as if he would know. It’s makes him simmer. People who don’t know won’t get it, he learned long ago. He loves his friends but outside of Jaemin, they all are lucky enough to have their families still at their backs. They have never been ignorant or awful, but they have never understood and they never will. And it seems that in this moment, he’s supposed to give an answer to something beyond words. And he just doesn’t want to.

“Remember your family is the exception, not the rule, Yuta.”

Mark’s voice is sharp, more determined and strong than Donghyuck has heard in the time of getting to know him again. He looks over at him, and for the first time, Mark meets his eyes. There’s some kind of understanding that passes there, that takes him far, far back to the conversation that has made this distance so unbearably incomprehensible.

“ _My family, actually. I just needed a place to go._ ”

“ _If it makes you feel any better, it was my family too. I walked here._ ”

Mark gives him a small nod, his face tight and perhaps a little regretful. He wants to tell him something, everything, _thank you_ , maybe. Anything but what Mark has been invoking in him since they’ve met again, but.

He leaves quickly. Up the stairs and gone. Leaving just the three of them.

“Sorry,” Yuta says, but Donghyuck isn’t caught up on that right now.

“It’s fine,” Donghyuck tells him, but he’s wondering what it means that Mark was so willing to call that back. So empathetic to what Donghyuck was feeling. So regretful to speak for him.

Donghyuck suddenly worries, very intensely, that he may have been reading this all wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jaemin has been the only thing keeping him sane, of that he’s sure. He’s on the porch, everyone else is either asleep or on patrol. If he presses up the glass, he can hear the crickets chirping in the night. If he closes his eyes, he can almost pretend its those summer nights where they sat on Jeno’s family’s roof and listened to the night go by. All he has is his voice, but he is glad to have him at all.

“You think that maybe you’ve been reading Mark all wrong?” His boyfriend asks after he explains the situation.

“Yeah,” Donghyuck whispers, “But like, I don’t know what this is if it isn’t disapproval? He smiled at me when I was first introduced. But since then, he’s gone out of his way to not be near me, at all. He didn’t pick a simulation for me to complete while I was training and when we were on patrol together, he didn’t even look at me once. Let alone speak to me.”

Jaemin sighs into the receiver, “Me either, those are signs of disapproval in my eyes, but we also read people very similarly.“

Donghyuck tilts his head more into the glass, “Yeah, didn’t think about that. Maybe you’re not the best second opinion.”

“Mmhm, but I’m glad I was your first choice anyway.”

Donghyuck smiles a little, something smug and teasing that he knows would draw Jaemin in closer if he could see it, “You’re my first choice for everything, don’t you know, baby?”

He hums in response, but again it’s that tinge of what was there was earlier. Donghyuck opens his eyes, shattering the illusion of closeness and focusing on his concern.

“Jaemin—“

“So what else is on your mind, huh? You’re getting styled tomorrow right?”

“Are you okay?” Donghyuck asks.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” It’s defensive, but not in any way Jaemin isn’t when he’s just playing around.

“I’m serious you sound, like, unsure,” he wants to know, he’s worried.

“Why would I be insecure?”

“I said unsure.”

“Same thing, isn’t it?”

Donghyuck’s face scrunches up, his eyebrows furrow. He wishes he was there, he wants to see the look in his eyes and know what’s going on. Jaemin’s always tried to tuck away the things that weigh on him, he’s too fond of seeming strong to wear it like Donghyuck wishes he would, but he’s never had the barrier of distance to hide behind before. Donghyuck doesn’t know how to budge him.

“Baby you can talk to me, you know that don’t you? I always want you to talk to me,” Donghyuck insists, quiet and vulnerable and hoping he’s honest because there’s nothing else for him to do.   
“If there was something wrong, I swear I’d tell you. Don’t worry about me, okay? You’ve already got too much on your plate.”

And he’s lying, at least a little, he can tell. How could he think that he wouldn’t tell? But, what can he do? What would fighting at close to midnight do for anyone?

So he goes quiet. Lets it go.

“So styling tomorrow,” Jaemin offers when Donghyuck’s line stays silent, “What are you thinking?”

Donghyuck slumps back against the glass, counts to ten and lets the want to keep it up bleed out.

“I don’t really know,” and he tries to be playful, “What would be your ideal Donghyuck, after tomorrow?”

“Um, tough question, but I’d have to go with the one I have.”

As dumb as it is, as upset as he is at the unspoken tension, he still blushes, “Shut up.”

“I’m serious, babe, you’re a stunner.”

“Fuck _off_ ,” he drawls, “Be real, I wanna change it up. I think it would be fun, what should I do?”

“You know, I’ve always wanted you blond.”

“ _Blond!_ ”

“Yeah, you know, like silver. _Blond_ , blond.”

“ _Fat_ chance Na Jaemin, second option.”

His boyfriend laughs and Donghyuck slips his eyes shuts, tries to go back to summer nights, “You’ve always talked about red, how about that.”

“I did want to do that for awhile, didn’t I?”

“Still don’t know why you didn’t.”

“Colored styles are more expensive than brown and I don’t trust you or anyone else we know with box dye.”

Jaemin snorts, “Well then let them do that, whatever will make you happy.”

He loves him so much, “I guess I will, then.”

“Fuck yes, babe, you’ll be so hot,” and that makes Donghyuck role his eyes, “Anything else on the life change roster?”

He fiddles the bottom of his hoodie, “They have a name picked out for me.”

“Oh wow,” Jaemin sounds proud, “Are you going to take it? Do you like it?”

“I like it, I really do, but I feel like it might come across wrong.”

“How so?”

He shifts, “I don’t want to come off as cocky or anything.”

“What is it?”

“Haechan.”

“Okay, forgive me, what’s it mean?”

“Full sun.”

“ _Cute_.”

He laughs, “Stop! I’m serious.”

“Take it.”

“Why?”

“Because they picked it for you. Just tell them that. It speaks to your ability and what people think of you. It’s a good name, it suits you. I’m serious.”

He pauses. Smiling while listening to the crickets go.

“I love you so much, you know that?”

He can see his boyfriend’s stupid fucking smile in his head, it makes him warm all the way down, “I love you too, I know you know that.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Are you really sure about this?”

But Donghyuck’s already in the chair, and oh he’s _sure_.

Johnny looks a little frightened and Jungwoo looks ecstatic. In front of him on the stylist’s cart sits bottles of developer, bleach, and toner to take it grey.

He’s going to be here for awhile, but oh he’s _sure_ sure.

“I’m warning you,” Taeyong calls from where he’s getting a trim, “They did it for me when I debuted, and it sucks. Your hair will never be the same.”

Donghyuck casts his eyes up and down the brown hair he’s been keeping up with since before he even came to super management.

He kind of really hopes it will never be the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The day of the interview starts with them being late, and it’s just as messy as this was always going to go.

“Come on, come on, come on! Out, out _out_!” Taeyong hustles them out the door, yelping when Johnny playfully smacks his ass as he passes.

They’ve already changed into their publicity outfits, white and red tracksuits that mimic their real uniforms (protective microfibers and 3D capturing cameras included) along with a tailored grey t-shirt. Donghyuck feels sharp. His hair still smells of salon and he slept surprisingly well the night before. All things considered, he could be feeling much _much_ worse.

They race down the tunnel and out to the car that waits for them on the curb. There’s some reporters obviously standing on the sidewalk, probably made bold by the fact that this schedule was announced in advance. Everyone ignores them, but he has a thought that sounds a lot like Jaemin telling him to _let them know who you are_.

He blows one reporter a small kiss before he’s pulled into the car amist a maelstrom of snapping. It’s a bit exhilarating.

“Did you really just do that?” Jaehyun asks, sounding impressed.

“Please don’t get any ideas,” Doyoung pleas, “I am begging you to not get any ideas.”

Jaehyun sits back, looking a mischievous and proud. It makes something in Donghyuck sing.

They pull up to the venue, and the short walk to the back of the building has a fairly substantial flack of people carrying signs bearing their number, _127_. It’s surreal, that’s for sure. He’s not entirely positive why they’re all allowed back here.

“Are we superheroes or rock stars?” Donghyuck ponders.

“Isn’t the goal always to be both?” Yuta answers, shrugging in a way that seems way too casual for what Donghyuck thinks the situation obviously demands.

Taeyong smiles at him tightly, “Well, here we go. Welcome to the life fully and formally, Haechan.”

Hot blood flushes through his body. Fuck.

The doors slide open and he is outside without a thought. Immediately, the screaming is loud and present. They’re smiling, waving, and Donghyuck does his best to follow without the adrenaline falling through every part of his body. The noise is loud, a lot, and more than anything he struggles to take it all in. As he passes by one set of girls, a sign is suddenly thrust towards him. Reactively, he looks down.

_NEO CITY IS ROOTING FOR YOU_

His head whips up, the shouting and the motion making him near dizzy as he stumbles to a stop. He looks at the girl holding it, and she smiles so kindly.

He nods, nods again, “ _Thank you!_ ” he tries to yell, but he’s not sure if he can even be heard. Let alone if that’s enough to convey what those words from a stranger really mean to him.

It’s overwhelming for those next few seconds before the show’s staff grab them and pull them backstage. Then, the noise is barely filtered by the metal door. He’s the last one in, and the clamor still rings with hollow echoes as he stands behind his team. This is really happening.

They put him into hair and makeup with jovial expressions. He doesn’t talk much, too swept in the experience of it all. They style is hair loosely, so it just stays out of his eyes. The makeup is subtle, youthful, yet undeniably pretty. It’s something he’s tried to achieve on his own before, but never with the mastery he’s seeing here. The mirror is showing him something he’s never seen before, and it’s in a way that makes him both terrified and safe. He’s never been so different, and yet it’s better because it’s different. It’s like no one can touch him, because he’s not even him.

He’s in such a fucking good mood. And that’s why he’s got the awful feeling that it’s all going going to go to shit.

That’s how it’s been going all week. He doubts the karmic balance of the universe has plans to change it up now.

They’re heralded to the back of the set pretty quickly, they were late after all. He peeks at the shooting space as they pass. It’s pretty small, but there is a live studio audience. He knew they would be there, but it’s still off putting to see people much more civilized than what he just encountered watching with such rapt attention. There’s nine chairs in two rows set up for them. Donghyuck is meant to be sitting in the bottom left, as close to the interviewer as possible.

They wait in silence for a long few minutes. His hands shake with some kind of emotion he’s not really up to controlling. Taeil grabs his hands from the side, he takes a deep breath.

They’re beckoned on.

“Now welcoming,” the host, _shit_ , Donghyuck can’t remember her name, announces, “Team 127!”

There’s raucous cheering in the crowd, more than Donghyuck was anticipating from their relatively polite attention earlier. They all smile, wave as they walk over to the seats they had planned to sit in before.

Donghyuck shifts as he sits on the backless stool. Feeling very exposed under the studio lights, the interviewer right to his right. He’s glad that Taeil is sitting beside him, at least he has comfort a mere reach away.

“Good morning, Team 127!” she says jovially.

“Good morning, Lucille,” Taeyong responds, Donghyuck repeats her name numerous times in his head.

“So, I’m sure we know why we are all gathered here today,” the audience hollers, and it really feels as though they are all looking straight at him.

He breathes in during the space of their response. The camera catches his eyes, and he’s sure to smile. His friends can’t watch this live, they have training, but he knows they’ll see it online later. However, the knowledge that they aren’t on the other side if that lens, breathing, waiting with him, makes him feel all the more alone. The lights are blinding, the situation is impossible, and it’s time to start this. For real.

“We’re welcoming the newest member of our elite defense team. Everyone, please give a warm welcome to Haechan!”

And the audience erupts, it makes him relieved. He wonders if they screened for positive opinions before sending out tickets.

“So Haechan, how are you today?” and he’s proud it doesn’t take him a second to recognize this new name as him.

“I’m terrified, Lucille,” but he says it with a loud smile, and the audience laughs.

“Well there’s nothing to be worried about here!” she declares, damning him to think otherwise, “So I want to ask you what I’m sure has been on everyone’s minds, how are you taking to superhero life?”

Okay, okay, they’re cruising. Taeil and he have talked about this, “It would be a lie to say swimmingly,” another laugh roll, “but I’m having a good time, it agrees with me a lot more than I worried it would.”

“He fits into our team flawlessly,” Johnny adds with a generic type of smile Donghyuck remembers seeing only before he met Johnny personally.

“I’m glad to hear it,” she replies, “Then I guess we should start with the basics. Who gets the honor of being called your hometown?”

He tries to look playful, recline a little, “Well I think I’ll keep the details to myself, but I’m from the western coast, right along the seaside.”

One girl in the audience squeals ridiculously loudly, and Lucille jokes, “Seems like you’ve already found a hometown friend.”

He gives the girl a little wave, and the resulting sound mimics pain more than anything else, it worries him.

“Moving on, Haechan, how old are you, and when did you head over to Super Management?”

“I’m twenty,” Donghyuck responds, “And I came to Super Management when I was eighteen.”

She pretends to look shocked, “Doesn’t that make you a bit young to be coming out as a hero?”

This one Taeyong grabs, “He’s actually by far the best in the training program. Better than anyone in his year or the year above, he holds out even without his specialty.”

This question he knows, and it worries him, but he knows it must be discussed, “Without his specialty? Haechan, is there something you’d like to tell us?”

He spreads his hands in a practiced gesture, a sort of nonchalant display of helplessness, and lies through this deep rooted insecurity, “I can’t control when it comes around! I just know that I can still kick butt on my own.”

Someone whoops in the audience, and he won’t lie, it makes him feel better.

“Well that’s certainly interesting, it definitely makes you one of a kind amongst our heroes.”

“I do enjoy being special,” and that earns a giggle.

“I’m sure you do,” she continues, “So then, why did you want to become a superhero?”

“I’ve always wanted to help the community,” Donghyuck recites, “Being able to work with people I like to make the world safer, nothing sounds better. I’ve known ever since I saw Girls’ Generation fighting their villains that I wanted to be that amazing. So, you know what they say. Shoot for the stars, land on the moon. Except, well, I’m here in the stars. It’s pretty shocking.”

Lucille smiles, clearly liking the answer.

“Well then, what was your reaction to finding out you would debut with an already active Team?”

The wording of that, it’s weird. It’s nuanced different than how Donghyuck remembers the question. He tries not to dwell.

“I was certainly surprised,” the audience is amused by that, “I didn’t think I would be pulled early at all, I had no clue until they told me themselves. And, well truthfully, it took me a little bit after to realize too.”

She hums, “So how long did you have between finding out and moving in to train.”

His whole team shifts. Tenses.

That question wasn’t given to them before.

There’s nothing they can do, especially when it’s seemingly so innocuous.

Donghyuck answers, perhaps a little two quietly, “I moved in the next night.”

“Oh wow!” she’s still bouncy, uncaring of how they watch carefully now.

Donghyuck remembers that he had been in a good mood. He prepares for the dive.

“Well then, I hate to change the subject on you guys, but I need to address the elephant in the room,” okay, they’re back on track, but Donghyuck has been and still does dread the clarifying question he knows they need to answer, “Where is Winwin?”

“Winwin is on break right now,” Yuta replies, clearly treading carefully from her small diversion, “We always endorse heroes putting their health and and happiness first, and that’s why we’re all perfectly happy to let Winwin have some time to himself.”

“Well that’s great to hear,” she pivots to the audience, “Isn’t that great to hear?”

And they all cheer.

“Well then, I think I should probably be letting our busy heroes go soon, but I’ve just got a pressing issue on my mind.”

One last question. Just one last question.

She looks at him. He’s ready. _What do you see coming in the future_?

Her eyes are kind, they don’t give away her intent, “How does the team work with you instead of Winwin?”

They all freeze. Donghyuck should be thinking about his expression, keeping it cool, improvising, but he can feel the horrible insecurity slam against his throat and all around his body.

He can’t speak.

“Actually,” someone says behind him, clear other side of the chairs, “despite what you seem to think, Haechan isn’t a replacement. We’ve been thinking about bringing him forward as an addition for a long time, it just happened to line up with Winwin needing time off. They’re two completely different people, two completely separate strengths. And to act as though they should play the same role, or be compared at all, accomplishes nothing at all.”

It’s Mark.

“I met Haechan on his first day at Super Management, I helped with his orientation,” he continues, “He’s been a strong leader and fighter since the start. He’s done nothing but prove himself over and over again, not just since he’s joined our team but since he’s started training. I am proud to be able to call him a teammate now, and I know all nine of us outside of him are glad too.”

She seems a little shocked, but still ignorant of how inappropriate the question was, “Well, I’m glad to hear it. Everyone, Team 127!”

The audience hollers, some people getting to their feet. From the stage side, a staff member is waving them over. They all get up, but there’s a bit of shock, distaste to all of them. No one wants to believe that happened.

Mark goes out first and Donghyuck races off the stage, pushing past his team members and the staff. But his unexpected ally has run off back to their greenroom.

Little does he know, Donghyuck is done holding his thanks, he’s done being confused.

He races ahead of everyone, determined to get there first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Mark, _Mark!_ ” Donghyuck yells, “Wait, come back here!”

He chases him into their empty greenroom, pushing him gently inside and closing the door behind them. And Mark, poor Mark, he looks scared.

“I’m sorry,” Mark says, looking at his face but not his eyes, “I know I stepped on your toes just then, I should’ve just let you handle it, I know you could have.”

Donghyuck just shakes his head, over and over, “No, I couldn’t. That’s why I didn’t, I froze up and you totally saved my ass.”

They both pause for a second some uneasy truce, but Donghyuck has never been the kind of person to end it at a stalemate.

“Did you mean any of what you said?” he demands, he has to know.

Mark looks down, and Donghyuck sighs in something close to frustration.

He answers, “Of course I did, I meant all of it.”

There’s some sort of knot in Donghyuck’s stomach, a tightening that pulls all of him in close. His arms wrap around themselves, close to his chest, trying to protect him from the misunderstanding that sits between them.

“Well then why have you been acting the way you have?”

“What do you mean?” Mark asks, and he sounds genuinely lost.

Donghyuck groans, and his head knocks back before coming back to Mark, “What do you _mean_ what do you mean?”

“I was trying to respect your space.”

Mark looks back up at him. His eyes are meek and Donghyuck knows his are confused.

“What space? What fucking space?”

Mark stutters around nothing for a second, says, “I thought you didn’t want to be around me.”

The confusion is mounting to the point that it starts to feel a little panicked, “Why did you think that?”

“Because you never spoke to me! We knew each other from before and you just wouldn’t talk to me past a certain point. You always looked at me like you were sizing me up or something, I thought you just didn’t want to hear from me.”

Donghyuck, well he wasn’t aware that his gentle waiting, assessing of Mark that gradually turned to annoyance came off like that. Either way, something still doesn’t make sense.

“Why would I not have wanted to hear from you? We were friends for a bit, weren’t we?”

Mark shrugs, “I thought you might’ve been mad that I hadn’t told you I was leaving the next day. I couldn’t have, by the way, it was confidential information.”

Donghyuck shakes his head, “I was never mad at you for that. We, all of us, we always got that. We maybe felt a little weird about it, but we’ve always gotten it. Just wished we could have gotten to get to know you better.”

Mark’s shoes suddenly seem very interesting to him, “Oh.”

“I thought you hated me,” Donghyuck confesses, and Mark freezes up, “You wouldn’t acknowledge me, and then you didn’t bother to pick a simulation for me during training, and then you wouldn’t ever be in the same place as me or talk to me if we were. I know that you said you were respecting my space, but even then, I think I started to assume the worst once Boah told me you hadn’t picked anything for me and then from there,” he trails off.

Mark looks up again, and this time their eye contact is understanding, not overwhelming, or posturing, or anything but honest, “I didn’t pick you a simulation because I knew you could handle them all. There was nothing I had been through that I thought would challenge you. I didn’t want to bother you with another pointless one.”

They stay staring at each other. Donghyuck feels like such a dick.

Behind them the door opens. They both whip around, seeing a very confused Yuta standing in the door.

“ _Leave them alone!_ ” two voices that sound like Taeil and Taeyong scream, and their older teammate quickly blanches as darts from the doorway, it falling shut behind him.

There’s a long pause, and then Mark and Donghyuck both collapse laughing. It breaks that little ball of guilt Donghyuck was building in his chest. This little happy moment, it reminds him of the few he and Mark had shared those few years ago.

They gradually fade back to a standstill, one that Donghyuck wants to break first, “I’m really sorry,” he confesses, “I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions, that didn’t do either of us any favors.”

Mark nods, “It’s okay, I wasn’t very clear either. I’m sorry I let my insecurity get ahead of me, and that I let it show so obviously that you would think that I didn’t like you.”

“It was just a lot of misunderstandings,” Donghyuck chuckles, “Which kind of makes it worse.”

Mark smiles too, “It’s okay, we’ve just got to communicate better in the future.”

Donghyuck self consciously rubs the back of his neck, “Yeah, you’re gonna have to hold me to that. My track record isn’t awesome.”

Mark snorts, “I’ve picked up on that.”

“Hey!” Donghyuck exclaims, but it’s friendly, “Bold words, Mr. ‘I’m sure he hates me for lying on the day we met’.”

Mark pouts, “Stop that.”

Donghyuck laughs, a little meanly, and Mark just waves him off. He figures that for now, that’s all that needs to be said.

He walks over to the door, opening it up to their other seven teammates waiting in the hallway. All of their heads snap up to him, and Taeyong in particular looks terrified.

“Is everything okay?” he asks, gently demanding.

Donghyuck nods, and he thinks he hears Mark snort at Taeyong’s question from behind him.

“Yeah,” Donghyuck tells him, truthfully, entirely, “We’re fine now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey hello i hope you enjoyed! leave a comment if you'd like with any thoughts or predictions, it would really make my day (like, seriously, comments make my life).
> 
> but yeah, thank you! come talk to me on twitter and i hope to see ya back here soon

**Author's Note:**

> Come talk to me! (and help me come up with a better summary lmaoo)  
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/00l0vebot)  
> [cc](https://curiouscat.me/00l0vebot)


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